For institutions
Adoption starter kit
A checklist for starting or strengthening a DataSquad: the roles to fill, the scope of service, and how to onboard students. The shared pieces come with templates; the local pieces are yours to decide.
People & roles
You can start small, even one supervisor and a couple of analysts.
- A program lead or supervisor (library or department staff) to sustain the squad
- A student project manager to triage requests and keep work moving
- One or more student data analysts, the people doing the hands-on work
- Optional: a technical writer to document projects and write guides
- Funding for student wages (this is yours to secure, see local operations)
Service scope & policies
Adapt these from the shared templates; keep the guardrails.
- A short statement of what your squad does and does not do (research support, not the research)
- A confidentiality agreement every student signs before client work
- A code of conduct for the team
- Optional: a cap on consultations per researcher per term, if demand needs managing
Local operations, your choice of tools
The network does not prescribe these. Examples show what UCLA uses; pick what your institution already has.
- Researcher intake & scheduling, UCLA uses LibCal + an intake form
- Request & project tracking, GitHub Projects is the shared network default (New/Triage → In Progress → Done)
- Internal team communication, UCLA uses Slack; the network coordinates over GitHub Discussions
- Document storage, UCLA uses Google Drive for notes and deliverables
- Assessment, UCLA uses LibInsight; track consultations so you can show impact
- Funding, payroll & hiring, wholly institutional (job descriptions, HR, a funding source)
Onboarding pattern
How UCLA brings a new analyst on in their first week, portable to your setup.
- An onboarding ticket each student opens to track their own setup
- Accounts & access (version control org, shared drives, communication channels)
- The signed confidentiality form before any client work
- A reading list (below) started in week one, continued through the first month
- A kickoff meeting with supervisors to set hours and consultation preferences
Join the network
The part that makes you a chapter, not an island.
- Introduce yourself to the network so we know you’re building
- Get added to the network’s GitHub Discussions and Projects
- Subscribe to the announcements list
- Share your launch and early wins back to the community
Shared reading list
A common foundation for new analysts across the network. Start here.
- Pedagogical Data Reference Interview
- The Practice of Reproducible Research (front matter + a case study)
- Good Enough Practices in Scientific Computing
- Introduction to Data Literacy
- Data Curation Network primers
- A role-specific job handbook for each student