Management of research data is a service area of increasing interest to libraries. Librarians have begun to provide a range of services in this area and now teach data management to researchers, work with individual researchers to improve their data management practices, create data management subject guides, and assist in supporting funding agency and publisher data requirements. This paper is a primer on research data management for librarians who have little or no experience in this topic. It includes general background about research data, an overview of what is meant by data management, and suggestions for how to begin to move into this service area.