The data librarian: Myth, reality or utopia?

The emergence of e-science and e-research has opened new paths and trends in scholarly communication and management. In the academic environment, the need for opening research products to a wider audience has become increasingly urgent. In this perspective, the Open Science (OS) movement is growing considerably in academia and among scientists worldwide. Two fundamental aspects of OS are the Open Access (OA) to scientific publication and the possibility of discovery, sharing and exploit the data used for or produced during the research process. The need for creating Open Data (OD) is profoundly changing the perspectives adopted by researchers during the scientific production, as research data is increasingly recognized as a primary research output. Not surprisingly, in order to have access to grants, funding bodies such as the European Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the RCUK in UK, the Australian Research Council in Australia, or the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. ask for a Data Management Plan (DMP) accompanying the project proposal. In this perspective, many academic libraries are now extending their century-long track record in the professional management of knowledge resources towards the area of research data, seeking to maximize research data skills among staff in their organisations. Academic libraries are indeed increasingly involved in the management of research data across the lifecycle, actively participating in tasks such as providing access to data, supporting researchers in managing their data and drafting DMPs, as well as managing data collections. Given this framework, it becomes clear that the "librarian" represents a constantly evolving profile. Our work will propose an overview of the competencies required to the librarian operating in academic libraries nowadays, delivering examples and making comparisons between different experiences worldwide. Special attention will be granted to the educational aspects necessary to accomplish with the actual skills required to research librarians, being training a fundamental aspect in the development and definition of this profession, highlighting the similarities and differences in educational proposals among different academic institutions. We will focus on the following questions: what is currently missing in the background of librarians? Should it be implemented or we must consider the data librarian as a brand-new profile? Our aim will be trying to give possible answers and outline specific qualifications required to those currently operating in academic libraries.