If You Build Research Data Services (and Market Them Well), They Will Come

June 23rd, 2025

In 2020, our library, Albert S. Cook Library of Towson University, took a significant step towards revolutionizing our research support infrastructure by laying the groundwork for robust Research Data Services (RDS). With support from faculty partners, donors and university technology funding, we established a cutting-edge Data Studio within our library featuring five high-powered computers equipped with advanced data analysis, visualization, and GIS software. However, two weeks after a large ribbon-cutting celebration attended by almost 100 cross-campus supporters and partners, the COVID-19 pandemic sent the entire campus into remote learning and abruptly halted any progress we’d made to start an RDS program.

Although our university resumed in-person learning in 2021, we faced ongoing challenges that hindered our progress. Staffing shortages and funding constraints made it difficult to regain the momentum we had before the pandemic. While the partners who attended our ribbon-cutting event remained supportive of expanding RDS, their focus shifted towards maintaining existing technologies and services instead of initiating new developments. In 2023, the library revitalized efforts to advance our RDS offerings by hiring a dedicated Data Science Librarian. This new role played a pivotal part in reinvigorating our program, with targeted outreach efforts driving the expansion of services and fostering renewed engagement across campus.

Marketing RDS: Insights and Strategies

When our Data Science Librarian started, he immediately focused on sustainably enhancing existing RDS and then strengthening connections across campus to promote those expanded services. For example, his first project was to work with Library IT to establish an instance of DMPTool.org, a free tool that grant seekers can use to create the data management plans that many U.S. federal government funders require, as well as to market and promote the tool. He targeted his outreach to two main groups, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR) and interested faculty. The library had discussed a potential partnership with OSPR in the past but struggled to develop a substantive connection during the pandemic. The Data Science Librarian prioritized meeting with the OSPR director to deliver a customized pitch, focusing not only on informing the OSPR director about DMP Tool, but also the variety of ways he could help the grant-seeking faculty who must go through OSPR when submitting a proposal. This partnership led to additional connections with individual faculty. Our Data Science Librarian also developed data-focused workshops and help guides, which were promoted by OSPR and The Faculty Academic Center of Excellence at Towson (FACET). Beyond DMP Tool, he introduced a suite of research data services, including support for data visualization and analysis, guidance on selecting, searching, accessing and using data repositories, and assistance with locating relevant datasets for research projects through consultations, small group discussion, in-course instructions and workshops. The workshops, covering the available services related to data management plans, data visualization/analysis, data repository/data sets, especially provided the opportunity to make connections with faculty who were interested in and would benefit from the research data services he was developing. Faculty feedback from those workshops enabled him to learn more about their research needs and develop new services to meet their data-focused projects. The Data Science Librarian also made sure to emphasize the Data Studio tools, such as the data visualization software PowerBI, in the instruction he provided. By linking his teaching to the Data Studio’s resources, the librarian not only highlighted the Studio’s capabilities but also encouraged researchers to make full use of its tools and technologies.

Through the process of developing and strategically marketing RDS, our Data Science Librarian found the following to be critical to his success:

1. Customized Outreach: Developing services tailored to the needs of specific user groups and engaging in targeted outreach significantly enhanced overall service adoption. Through workshops and other initiatives, our Data Science Librarian prioritized identifying the unique needs of various academic departments and research groups. For instance, the NVIVO workshop series was developed in response to specific requests identified during a faculty meeting in the Department of Learning Technologies, Design, and School Library Media, which the librarian attended. These workshops, which received enthusiastic participation from faculty, addressed their expressed needs and inspired further engagement. Additionally, the establishment of a Single Sign-On (SSO) connection to DMP Tool exemplified how promoting services with direct and practical benefits can significantly increase interest and usage. By focusing on creating and marketing such customized offerings, we were able to build meaningful connections and drive service adoption.
2. Strategic Partnerships: Concurrently to the customized outreach mentioned above, we focused on building partnerships with faculty and units that had previously demonstrated support for RDS or where we could easily make the case that the services we were building would benefit them. Collaborating with supportive faculty, the colleges, FACET, OSPR, the Office of Research, and administrative units proved to be one of our most effective strategies. These partnerships not only extended our reach but also embedded our services into ongoing research projects and academic curricula, creating a network of advocates for RDS.
3. Diverse Communication Channels: We employed a multi-faceted communication strategy to raise awareness about RDS. This involved refined research help guides (Data Guide), targeted email campaigns including enthusiastically reaching out to faculty and department heads who had expressed an interest pre-pandemic but hadn’t followed up, seasonal workshops that we promoted through our partners and our university’s daily campus e-newsletter, as well as sharing success stories, both internally and externally, that highlight the practical benefits of our services. This comprehensive approach ensured that our message reached a wide audience.
4. Responsive Service Development:  Regular feedback from users was crucial for refining and improving our services. By actively gathering input through customized surveys targeted primarily at faculty—distributed via faculty meetings, leadership councils, after workshops, and other engagement opportunities—we ensured that our offerings stayed relevant and aligned with the evolving needs of our research community.

Future Directions: Expanding Our Impact

Looking ahead, our ambition is to further integrate RDS into the university’s research framework. Plans are underway to expand the Data Studio with more advanced tools and resources, Tableau Desktop and Atlas.ti for example, along with more high-powered computers, as well as to develop specialized training programs that equip researchers, faculty and students with essential data skills.

For other institutions aiming to establish successful RDS programs, our experience provides several key takeaways:

• Build a Solid Infrastructure: Invest in the necessary technology and resources to deliver high-quality data services. For us, this included reducing technology costs in other parts of the library so we could invest in more high-powered computing in our Data Studio where more resource-intensive computing for RDS is needed. This process involved library administration examining the technology needs across the library’s classrooms and public computers to determine where we could extend the life of existing technology so we could put off the costly expenditure of purchasing hundreds of new computers. They also looked at where we had over-estimated the capabilities that our users would need so we could save money by downgrading to less-expensive products when we did refresh our technology.
• Appoint Dedicated Personnel: Hiring a dedicated Data Librarian or team can drive targeted outreach and service development. Because we had someone primarily focused on this work, rather than delegating it piecemeal to a team of already overwhelmed librarians, we were able to consistently promote and deliver RDS. This resulted in researchers seeing our services as reliable and consistent so a handful have returned repeatedly and are now We are hoping to expand our team to include more focused expertise such as in visualization and specific data tools (SPSS, R, etc.) so we can better match the support we provide with what our users are requesting.
• Continue to Cultivate Partnerships: Forging strong collaborations with faculty and research entities enabled us to integrate RDS into broader academic and research activities. We are now looking at expanding our partnerships to additional colleges beyond our early adopters, and we are reintroducing RDS in areas where major personnel changes have taken place.
• Utilize Effective Marketing: Leveraging various communication methods, such as library instructions, workshops, consultations, and course-integrated instruction, to increase visibility and showcase the value of our services enabled us to get started. We hope to continue this approach and develop tailored messages to demonstrate how our services can benefit new potential partners.
• Be Adaptive: By gathering and acting on feedback, the Data Science Librarian has been able to adapt our RDS to better meet user needs. We intend to continue to gather feedback formally, through surveys and interviews, and informally, through meetings and conversations over coffee with faculty, students, and administrators.

These practices can help institutions successfully establish and grow their RDS programs, providing researchers with the critical support they need. Our journey demonstrates that when research data services are well-built and well-marketed, success is not just possible—it is inevitable.