The ADMIRe team had an entertaining few days at the JISC MRD workshop on the 24th-25th October 2012. It’s very interesting to learn from our fellow travellers and see where our commonalities lie.
Some highlights for us were:
- Evaluating which data to retain and discard, the NERC checklist was particularly interesting.
- Using the JANET brokerage to lever resources and explore shared RDM services
- Training and guidance – there were some useful examples of RDM websites
- RDM business cases – Bristol are far ahead here
The final point is one that is looming ever larger in our work, we’re a year into the project and the focus has shifted from one of analysis to implementation – a noticeable change that has required a shift in both mindset and working patterns. Our RDM website is due to launch in November and our RDM survey results are also due for release – both deliverables that will engage the academic community and generate interest in our fledgling service. In this respect, we’re working hard to understand what the University requires and what roles, skills and departmental structures are required to support RDM requests.
Clearly, we expect the website to generate enquiries, but do we signpost them to other people (i.e. Library, IT Support etc) or engage with them ourselves? these are questions which others at the conference are faced with and many are at a similar point – is launching a website equivalent to launching a full-scale service with limited support (i.e. only the JISC funded team) and is this a wise move?
If anything, our progress to date is making it exceptionally clear that now is the time to take our thoughts on sustainability and to turn this into a structured business case – so expect updates on this as we progress.
ADMIRe presentations and posters are available here: