Librarian as institutional metadata steward: Case studies in Research Information Management Systems administration
Research Information Management (RIM) systems have become core infrastructure in universities, integrating data about research, teaching, grants, service, and people into a single platform. Institutions adopt these systems for faculty activity reporting, analytics, public profiles, repository deposit, and other data-driven workflows. While many platforms offer automation features, effective administration requires technical expertise in data wrangling, harvesting, scripting, and reporting.
Librarians skilled in programming, systems thinking, and project management are uniquely suited to this work. Combining these abilities with knowledge of metadata, privacy, and equitable service, librarians act as stewards of institutional metadata. Drawing on five years of experience managing a successful, library-led implementation, this talk will use case studies to illustrate the librarian as data engineer: applying code and data skills to administer, automate, and extend RIM Systems.
Examples include scripting API ingestion pipelines for data migrations (degrees, appointments, legacy systems); building crosswalks to automate local feeds; integrating with the IR for metadata harvesting and deposit; and developing workflows in R and Visual Studio to connect directly to SQL databases for reconciliation and reporting. I’ll also describe partnerships with campus offices and how a small staff sustains this enterprise-level service, highlighting RIM administration as a growing domain of technical librarianship.