3 Learn who you are working with

As you go through the planning stages it’s important to consider the people who will be involved with, or affected by, the Research Data Services program you are developing. Some of these individuals are easy to identify, such as your department head or other colleagues, but others are not so obvious. Your RDS program will likely have many more people involved than you realize at first, and taking a thorough inventory will help you target your efforts and make sure you build the best program possible.

The people involved with or affected by your Research Data Services program can easily go well beyond the border of your library. Your document will likely involved with planning RDS trainings and events, support personnel, and library staff and faculty as well as those who will receive your services and are most directly impacted by them. If you are just starting to build your RDS program you might not be aware of all the individuals who could be classified as stakeholders, so you can start by taking an inventory of people in your immediate area of the library and working out from there. This document will grow and expand over time, and will change as people leave and join your library and university, but it’s important to establish an initial stakeholder inventory so you have a good understanding of the people involved in the project.

This inventory should not be treated as a private document. Use a tool like Google Docs to prepare this inventory so you can easily share it with others, and invite people to contribute to the information contained within. Keep the information factual, general, and easy to understand so anyone who sees the document will know right away who is involved with, or affected by, the RDS program. This is not a place to air personal grievances or put down sensitive information, and most of the data on this inventory can be gleaned from commonly-available sources such as the university directory or simply by talking to people in your department. Other data such as Interest is more of a personal judgement call on your part. While a stakeholder inventory can contain any information you see fit, some elements to consider including are:

• Stakeholder Name – The person’s name
• Title – The person’s title in the university system
• Department – The person’s department or college
• Communicate Via – Preferred method of communication, which can help your messages and conversations be more effective
• Interest – How closely they are involved with the RDS program. Someone with high interest will be part of the program on a near-daily basis, while someone with low interest will need to be kept in the loop but as often.

As with the other information you will be collecting at this stage of the process, your overall goal is to establish a certain level of baseline knowledge. As you build up the RDS program you will get to learn more stakeholders and can update your Inventory accordingly.

They are the ones who should be targeted by your needs assessment.  Others who may also be impacted include service providers such as librarians and other resource groups.  This group is sometimes included in the needs assessment but should properly be considered in the later steps of the process.  A third group that is considered separately is those who provide support or facilities such as classroom space, learning and library management systems or software and IT support.  

Knowledge Check

Altschuld, James W, and Belle Ruth Witkin. 2000. From needs assessment to action: Transforming needs into solution strategies. Sage, p. 9.