Open Science Skills in Danish Research Libraries

Open Science is gaining more and more ground among academics. This has consequences for research libraries and their staff tasked with services supporting the entire research life cycle, from providing access to relevant databases, to research data management, to scholarly publishing. To stay relevant, research library services have to be developed and adapted to support Open Science research activities. Therefore, it is important to investigate what competencies and skills are needed to provide a given library service, both in terms of continuing education and training of existing library staff and of curriculum development in library and information science education.

There are several international initiatives that either facilitate the upskilling of researchers and research staff within Open Science (e.g. the EC’s “Open Science Skills Working Group report” [1] and FOSTER’s materials and online courses [2]) or provide a framework for research libraries of how to engage in Open Science support (e.g. LIBER’s “Open Science Roadmap” [3]). These initiatives lay out general lines of action that can serve as starting points for more locally focused activities. Furthermore, the EDISON project has provided competency profiles for data professionals that can be used for curriculum design within higher and continuing education [4].

In our poster, we present a project, currently funded by Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF), that investigates, models, and deploys Open Science skills for Danish research librarians. The project comprises three subprojects that focus on 1) a general model of Open Science competencies and skills for research librarians, 2) an overview of Danish digital collections, with a focus on openness and applicability, 3) the identification of current and future RDM services and tools at Danish research libraries and a model of RDM competencies and skills for research librarians. The project started in March 2018 and will run until March 2020.

We present initial considerations and the research design of the subprojects 1) and 3). We provide insights into the challenges encountered when introducing general international frameworks into a national context.