Librarians and scientists partner to address data management: Taking collaboration to the next level
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to look at the changing way in which the Information Services Office (ISO) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides services to NIST scientific and technical staff throughout their research and publishing cycles. These services include the more traditional services of a research library and publishing NIST technical reports and The Journal of Research of NIST and preserving and exhibiting scientific instruments and other artifacts. ISO has always prided itself on having a close relationship with its customers, providing a high level of service and developing new services to stay in front of NIST researcher needs. Through a concerted, strategic effort since the late 1990s, ISO has developed and promoted relationships with its key customers through its Lab Liaison Program.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses the relationship ISO has developed with the Office of Data and Informatics (ODI), how this relationship was forged and how this collaboration will serve as a model for working with the other labs and programs at NIST. It will also discuss the risks and opportunities of this new collaborative service model, how ISO positioned itself to become an equal partner with ODI in the exploration of solutions to data management issues and the benefits of the relationship from ODI’s perspective.
Findings
A pattern of strategic changes to the services and activities offered by the Lab Liaison program has put ISO in the position to collaborate as peers with researchers at NIST.
Originality/value
This study provides an overview of how ISO made strategic decisions to incorporate non-traditional services to support data management at NIST.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the researchers in ODI who provided comments about the collaboration. They also thank Susan Makar, the MML Librarian Liaison and Regina Avila, Digital Services Librarian, who read several versions of the paper and provided thoughtful and valuable insights.
Citation
Medina-Smith, A., Tryka, K.A., Silcox, B. and Hanisch, R.J. (2016), "Librarians and scientists partner to address data management: Taking collaboration to the next level", Digital Library Perspectives, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 142-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-08-2015-0010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Contribution of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Not subject to copyright in the United States