Digital Inception: Building a digital scholarship/humanities curriculum as a subject librarian

Digital scholarship is gaining momentum in academia. What started as a humanities movement is now present in most disciplines. Introducing digital scholarship to students can benefit them in multiple ways: it helps them interact with new trends in scholarship, appeals to different kinds of learners, helps them develop new and emerging literacies, and gives them the opportunity to be creative.

The library is an ideal partner for introducing digital scholarship into the university classroom. Besides offering access to information, libraries are well-versed in scholarly communication and new technologies. While many university libraries are now creating digital scholarship librarian positions and/or centers, this is not an option for all libraries. Furthermore, even if these positions are created, they are not always able to keep up with the demand or they focus on researchers rather than students. But why not subject librarians?

Subject librarians are perfectly poised to fill this void. They are familiar with their subjects, have access to the faculty, and are knowledgeable in the types of assignments students complete.

This 90-minute presentation will guide attendees in building a digital scholarship curriculum from a subject librarian position. It will explore how to identify opportunities, reach out to faculty, and advertise your services. It will also showcase activities, lesson plans, and free tools for digital publication, data mining, text analysis, mapping, etc.

Finally, the presentation will include a section on finding training opportunities and strategies to support colleagues and create capacity in your institutions.