Case Study: Black Mesa University

Carrol Quinlan, Ph.D., is a librarian at Black Mesa University, a Land Grant institution in the midwest region of the United State. BMU has an undergraduate population of roughly 12,000 with about 2,000 graduates, and is located near the center of a midsize city whose economy is primarily built on on agriculture and energy production.

Dr. Quinlan earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and spent five years working for the Provost at another university before coming to Black Mesa University. After a year of helping build up the suite of data tools available through the library, her department head realized the importance of a full-fledged Research Data Services department and subsequently chose Dr. Quinlan to head this new initiative. Dr. Quinlan is familiar with some basic concepts of research, data science, and project management but has not yet led the creation of a major initiative such as this. Her goal is to learn as much as possible about Research Data Services, understand more about principles of Project Management, and design and implement an RDS program that can be utilized by faculty members throughout her university.

Dr. Quinlan’s progress in developing a Research Data Services program will be used throughout this Tools for RDS book as a way of illustrating how various concepts and principles are applied, show what happens when some mistakes are made, and ultimately serve as an example of how to design and implement a solid RDS program.