Mobilising a Nation: RDM Training and Education in South Africa

The South African Network of Data and Information Curation Communities (NeDICC) was formed to promote the development and use of standards and best practices among South African data stewards and data librarians (NeDICC, 2015). The steering committee has members from various South African HEIs and research councils. As part of their service offerings NeDICC arranges seminars, workshops and conferences to promote awareness regarding digital curation. NeDICC has contributed to the increase in awareness, and growth of knowledge, on the subject of digital and data curation in South Africa (Kahn et al.,2014).NeDICC members are involved in the UP M.IT and Continued Professional Development training, and serve as external examiners for the UCT M.Phil in Digital Curation degree. NeDICC is responsible for the Research Data Management track at the annual e-Research conference in SA1and develops an annual training-focussed programme to provide workshop opportunities with both SA and foreign trainers. This paper specifically addresses the efforts by this community to mobilise and upskill South African librarians so that they would be willing and able to provide the necessary RDM services that would strengthen the national data effort. 1eResearch conference: http://www.eresearch.ac.za