Data documentation and metadata use in research data management

The role of librarian and research data management has been a growing topic of discussion and participation within libraries and universities. Librarians and universities have formed many initiatives, committees and groups to assist in the areas of support for data deposit and data management. The University of Illinois created an e-research implementation group to bring together subject specialists, research data librarians, and functional specialists to advance the library's data initiatives. In order to support the efforts of a broader goal to educate others about the research data services that are available to them and offer tools to meet their data needs, a smaller group of librarians within the e-research implementation group began a project to update the data services website. This update provided information and education regarding the definition of data, intellectual property, data sharing, funding requirements, files, formats, preservation and storage information. This poster illustrates how a website can be used as an instructional model for data documentation and metadata. The goal of this poster is to provide insight and information as a point of reference when librarians, researchers, data managers, curators and scientists meet individuals with data needs.