The collaborative creation of a Research Data Management Librarian Academy (RDMLA)

With the growing momentum of research data services in libraries, a team of librarians and Library Information Science (LIS) faculty members have been working together to develop a free, online Research Data Management Librarian Academy (RDMLA) aimed primarily for practicing librarians and information professionals, but also for researchers to gain knowledge about research data management (RDM) principles and best practices. The training modules will be made available to anyone across the globe. The development team includes librarians from Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Tufts Health Sciences, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), University, Boston University School of Medicine, Brown University, Northeastern University, Elsevier, and Simmons University. Simmons University's School of Library and Information Science will grant continuing education credit for those desiring such. This is a unique partnership between librarians, LIS educators, and a publisher. The RDMLA is hosted online on Canvas under the CC-BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) licensing. The need for this training was evidenced through interviews and online surveys which identified gaps in current training offerings and highlighted what skills librarians and researchers need to contribute to their RDM success. An inventory of existing courses was prepared along with a review of job description competencies. This publication outlines the outcomes of the needs assessment, inventories, and the Academy's training unit content. © 2019 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.