[Rdap] Data management and public services - solutions to colleague confusion

[Rinehart, Amanda K.]

Hi Daureen,

I've held the data curation position at three different universities and been organized in public services twice and tech services once. It doesn't really matter where I'm placed, both sides tend to be confused about my responsibilities. Essentially, I do public service-type work, but work with/talk a lot about technology, so there is no consensus about what I am in libraryland. I have a two-prong approach: I educate my colleagues similarly to how I educate teaching faculty (workshops work well, and team up with another colleague). Example: I'm doing a 'brown bag' on data information literacy with a subject librarian who has in interest in government open data and teaches some DIL concepts in an international affairs class. It won't be perfect or comprehensive, but it will highlight the connection between my work and what a 'normal' librarian does. And when that doesn't generate trust, I've actually approached individuals and shared my position description (tactfully, of course, explaining that I am working to the job description, which is why my activities look different, but in fact, this is what I was hired to do). I also include justifications of why I do my activities in my reviews, which is something I didn't have to do as a 'normal' subject librarian. As more of us move into this field, this will likely decrease, but I do wish someone had warned me, as it does take quite a bit of time - and it's much easier to strategize a solution when you know it's a potential issue. I was a bit taken aback when I first started working in this field at the internal push-back, but then I realized it was rarely about me or the work that I do - it's much more likely to do with the history of how the position came about, or fear of new expectations, or part of a general identity crisis, etc. If this is the case, then there is little you can do to help that individual - you can only do your best to communicate with your reporting line and accomplish your goals. And as we can see from these e-mail responses, know that you are not alone!

Best of luck,

amanda


________________________________
From: Rdap [rdap-bounces at asis.org] on behalf of Daureen Nesdill [daureen.nesdill at utah.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 2:30 PM
To: Research Data, Access and Preservation
Subject: [Rdap] Data management and public services
Hi,
I'm up for my 5-yr post tenure review and a colleague of mine is being critical of my work in data management. This is  because, as she explains, it is not public service so I do not do enough public service. What I'm doing is assisting with writing DMPs, teaching about repositories and data management, answering reference questions in data management - in addition to all the ELN work.

Has anyone run into this issue? How did you handle it?

Totally confused in Utah,
Daureen

Daureen Nesdill, MS, MLIS
Data Curation Librarian
The Faculty Center @ the J. W. Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0860
801-585-5975
daureen.nesdill at utah.edu<mailto:daureen.nesdill at utah.edu>

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