Research Data Management Services in Southern Africa: A Readiness Survey of Academic and Research Libraries

Abstract

The paper reports on a study on the readiness of university and research libraries in
Southern Africa to provide research data management services in their institutions. The aim
of the study was to determine how ready university and research libraries are in leading and
participating in research data management services. The study also determined the readiness
of libraries to engage in stakeholder collaborative programmes to provide institution-wide
services and systems for research data management. Various aspects relating to research
data management services readiness that were included in the study are: data support
services, archiving, organisational structures, staffing and training, funding, outreach and
partnerships, and challenges and opportunities of research data management service
provision. A questionnaire was distributed to fifty-nine university librarians and library
directors in university and research libraries in eight southern Africa countries of Botswana,
Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The results
show that research data management services are still in their early stages of development
with various countries and institutions at different levels of readiness for service provision
and with some countries and institutions not yet ready to implement any type of services. A
small number of institutions have policies in place or are planning to implement some in the
near future. Existing institutional repositories are also seen as a possible extension of data
management services. Recruitment of specialised personnel to manage data management
projects is taking place in some institutions, and many are providing skills to existing library
staff for the new services. It is recommended that there is a need to advocate for awareness of
research data management within institutions with academic and research libraries taking a
leading role in spearheading data management and providing training and the technical
support needed to store and retrieve research output and data sets.

Keywords: Academic libraries; Research data management; Research libraries; Southern Africa.