Surfeit of Sources: Appraising Data Management Books For Librarians

As data librarianship has grown in the past 15 years, many authors and publishers have sought to provide introductory texts for librarians who are newly entering the field or who are reskilling. This has resulted in an average of 2 new books per year spread across a variety of academic, commercial, and library-focused publishers.

The majority of these books are focused entirely on background knowledge and the initial creation of data management services, with a particular emphasis on meeting requirements for the US federal agency data management policies as well as the similar requirements and policies that have emerged in Canada and in countries across Europe. The books also often provide basic suggestions for teaching foundational data management skills to researchers and graduate students.

In this presentation, we will share a comprehensive overview of the books that have been published, identifying the broad topics addressed in each and the limitations of the corpus as a whole. We will also discuss what formats are available and the barriers that cost may play for librarians in accessing these books. Our hope is to provide the community an understanding of how overwhelmingly introductory topics have been covered and identify ideas for more advanced or niche materials that would support the data community as it continues to evolve and mature.