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iSchool Capstone

Digital Scholarship Needs Assessment

Project tags:

information behavior & user research

Project poster

The development of robust support for digital scholarship--work that focuses on the juncture of technology and traditional humanities and social science scholarship--is an increasingly important role of academic libraries. UW students and faculty have been and are doing innovative work in this area, but鈥╯upport from the library and other campus groups has been inconsistent. In consultation with the UW鈥↙ibraries' Digital Scholarship Task Group, we conducted a needs assessment of faculty and graduate鈥╯tudents working on digital projects. Through a series of focus groups, interviews, and reviews of鈥╯uccessful programs at other institutions, we have identified key needs as well as potential training and鈥╰ools to meet those needs. Our key recommendations include: dedicated physical space for scholars and faculty to do their work, centralized and visible support for those seeking guidance, project matchmaking to pair scholars with ongoing projects, front-loading programs early in the academic year, and institutional and leadership consistency.

Project participants:

Becky Ramsey

MLIS

Abigail Darling

MLIS