Advancing Research Data Management: A Social Capital Perspective on Functional Librarianship

This chapter investigates librarianship in the area of Research Data Management (RDM) through the lens of social capital theory. If social capital theories and concepts have the potential to bring to light the invisible or non-quantifiable value of academic library services (Bracke 2016; Corrall 2015), we postulate that they will lend a generative lens to explore the symbolic, network, and normative effects of engagement within the academic library. Using librarian and archivist-authored RDM literature as a case study, we will explore the dynamic relationships between network structures and the effects of functional librarianship on the social capital of academic libraries.

User studies of scientists and case studies of library RDM programs (Perrier et al. 2017) are common in the literature, but their underlying theoretical frameworks are limited to “individual behaviourism” (Fecher, Friesike, and Hebing 2015), normative and historical institutionalism (Akers et al. 2014; Zenk-Möltgen et al. 2018), “wicked problem” theory (Cox, Pinfield, and Smith 2014) and organizational subculture theory (Cox and Verbaan 2016). Insights about the unique positionality of libraries within the academic community (Gold 2007) and potential leadership opportunities (Flores et al. 2015) have been mentioned but have yet to be clearly theorized to the level of a useful framework for deeper analysis or practical application of RDM research.

A social capital perspective will offer a theoretical framework which contextualizes the potential benefits borne of functional engagement, including access to information attributed to network positionality and bridging connections, mutual supports found in communities with dense ties and group cohesion, and agency for enhancing reputation (Lin et al. 2001). As the presence of social capital can be used as a predictor of healthier institutional, disciplinary and departmental climates, this examination will highlight opportunities for strengthening social capital in libraries. We will also suggest modalities for libraries and related organizations to more consciously transform themselves using identified relationship building strategies.

We provide a review of current RDM literature which summarizes the existing theoretical assumptions applied in the research to describe the development of RDM services and solutions in light of existing challenges. This is followed by an introduction of classic symbolic, normative, and network views of social capital theory, which are synthesized and applied to our sample during our coding exercise. Several essential themes surface in our axial coding exercise and they are summarized in our results and findings.