RDMLA free training course for librarians adds new units

RDMLA celebrating 5,000 learners from 156 countries and growing!

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RDMLA is a free online professional development program for librarians and information professionals who work in a research-intensive environment.

Launched in October 2019, the program was designed by librarians and consisted of eight self-paced, asynchronous units focusing on the knowledge and skills needed for librarians to collaborate with researchers and other stakeholders on data management. The content was designed to be practical and easily applied to a librarian’s daily data management workflow.

The original eight units:

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  Foundations of Research Data Management (RDM)

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  Research Culture

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  Advocating for RDM in Libraries

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  Launching Data Services

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  Project Management and Assessment

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  Overview Data Analysis and Visualization Tools

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  Overview of Coding Tools

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  Overview of Platform Tools (OSF, Figshare, Mendeley Data, and others)

In response to learner feedback, and to fill in gaps in the curriculum, two new units were added in late 2020:

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  Delivering Data Management Training

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  Data Copyright, Licensing and Privacy

In February 2021, an 11^th unit, Data Curation and Archiving launched and will be particularly useful to librarians and information professionals who aid researchers in managing and preserving data.

The RDMLA curriculum is based on an extensive needs assessment and existing training inventory survey. In a continued commitment to bridging learning gaps, three additional units—data copyright, data ethics, and data curation—are under development. While the course is currently available to English-speaking individuals, there are future plans to provide translated versions to serve a broader audience.

In February 2020, the RDMLA partnered with the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Simmons University to offer continuing education (CE) credits to interested learners!

The leadership and faculty of the RDMLA is a unique partnership and collaboration between a LIS academic program, academic health sciences, and Elsevier, who funds the program. The co-leaders are Elaine Martin, MLS, DA, Director and Chief Administrative Officer, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School, and Rong Tang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Simmons University.

With over 4,200 learners from 140 countries, the RDMLA is already making an impact in meeting the needs of its community.

Don’t delay, visit the RDMLA website(opens in new tab/window) and take a few moments to explore this unique program.