10/15/2016
Published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), this edited volume addresses the fast-growing niche for librarians who support researchers and manage, preserve, advocate, teach, and provide access to research data. Editors Kellam (data svcs. librarian, Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro) and Thompson (data librarian, Univ. of Windsor) recruited 35 academic librarians to contribute 22 chapters on data management philosophy, including best practices and case studies. The focus is on quantitative data practices in the social sciences while touching on hard sciences and qualitative research. Highlights include studies on teaching data research skills, writing metadata for data sets, and analyzing data sharing policies of scholarly journals. Chapters on the state of Canadian and British/European data librarianship offer valuable international context, though research is lacking on Latin American, African, or Asian data librarianship. This is a scholarly study, with extensive footnotes, as distinct from practice-specific titles such as Data Management for Libraries: A LITA Guide and Research Data Management: Practical Strategies for Information Professionals. VERDICT Richly informative, this work will add depth and context to the work of anyone building data support services in libraries.—Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut
