ACRL DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP CENTERS INTEREST GROUP Survey of Digital Scholarship Centers Final Report March 11th, 2016
Co-conveners: Steven Bell and Merinda Hensley Survey Project Coordinators: Talea Anderson, Cinthya Ippoliti, Julie Vecchio Report created by Cinthya Ippoliti
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Introduction: Digital scholarship, open access, and interdisciplinarity are intertwined with parallel movements in libraries to be responsive to these changes while repurposing spaces, staffing, and workflows to support these new areas. Digital scholarship melds together subject expertise with technological advances and digital tools and processes such as data visualization, fabrication, GIS/mapping, and data-mining. These innovations are dramatically expanding our notions of what it means to create, and how these intellectual products are shared, re-imagined and accessed in this environment. We must therefore be able to proactively envision strategies for concepts such as data information literacy and digital project management. Digital scholarship centers are currently in the formative stages at a variety of types of institutions. These centers address research, teaching and learning needs across disciplines by providing services for a variety of digital research needs including digital humanities, data services and management, GIS, digitization, and scholarly communication issues. Group Charge: In Fall of 2015, The ACRL Digital Scholarship Centers Interest Group charged a subgroup to begin building a foundation of resources on digital scholarship centers. The subgroup was tasked with creating and distributing an online survey in order to gather information for the following main purposes: •
Resource development - creating a "database" of current digital scholarship centers and their services
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Collaboration with other groups such as the Coalition for Networked Information who are examining similar trends
Analysis: The survey was sent via several listservs, including ScholComm, RUSA, RSS, ILI. 76 institutions completed the survey out of a total 121 surveys in total. The following institutions completed the survey: Augusta University Bucknell University Clarke University Clemson University College of the Holy Cross Colorado State University Dartmouth College Duke University Duquesne University 2
Emory University Florida Institute of Technology Florida Institute of Technology Florida International University Florida State University Georgetown University Harvard University Indiana University - Bloomington Kansas State University Liberty University Los Alamos National Laboratory Loyola University Maryland and Notre Dame of Maryland University Michigan State University Montana State University - Bozeman New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY Northeastern University Occidental College Oregon State University Rochester Institute of Technology Rutgers University SUNY Geneseo Swarthmore College Texas A&M University The College at Brockport, State University of NY The Ohio State University The Pennsylvania State University U of Wisconsin-Eau Claire UC Santa Cruz Univ. of Oregon University of Bridgeport University of California, Davis University of Florida University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Michigan-Ann Arbor University of Minnesota-Twin Cities University of Nebraska-Lincoln University of North Dakota University of Notre Dame University of Notre Dame University of Oklahoma - Norman University of Pittsburgh 3
University of San Francisco University of Southern California University of Tennessee, Knoxville University of Washington University of Wisconsin-Madison Western Carolina University Whitman College Wichita State University Yale University We asked respondents to let us know if they had a dedicated digital scholarship center on their campus. 31 of the total respondents indicated they DID NOT have a digital scholarship center, but about 5 of them indicated one was coming soon. In addition, 6 of them had no plans to do so in the near future, with the rest either responding maybe or that several of the services listed were already in progress but not as part of a separate center. What is the name of your scholarship center? • 4 were named Digital Scholarship Lab • 4 were named Digital Scholarship Commons • 5 were named Digital Scholarship Center • Other names varied from Scholars’ Collaborative, Digital Curation Research Center and Digital Humanities Lab, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, Center for Digital Liberal Arts Year center was funded/open? Most centers were opened between 2013-2015 with a few being funded as far back as 2004, but mostly being funded and opened between 2013-2015. 3DU Center for Digital Liberal Arts Center for Digital Research in the Humanities Center for Digital Scholarship Center for Digital Scholarship Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship Data Infrastructure & Scholarly Communication (DISC) Digital Curation Research Center AND Digital Humanities Lab Digital Scholars Lab Digital Scholarship Center Digital Scholarship Center 4
Digital Scholarship Commons Digital Scholarship Commons Digital Scholarship Group Digital Scholarship Lab Digital Scholarship Lab Digital Scholarship Lab Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL) Not named, distributed, many activities Research Commons Scholarly Commons Scholars' Collaborative The Edge: The Ruppert Commons for Research + Technology + Collaboration The Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS) Please describe any needs assessment efforts undertaken by your university/library prior to establishing the center Only 18 respondents filled out this question, but of those 16 indicated they did go through some kinds of need assessment activities. These ranged from formal surveys and studies, to informal interviews and SWOT analyses. Types of services offered A total of 19 respondents filled in this question. The discrepancy between number of institutions who offered each service varied only by one. The most popular service offered was data curation and preservation with 16, followed by a tie at 15 with data analysis and metadata, and 14 with digital project management, digital publishing and scholarly communications. 7 institutions indicated they plan to offer text mining and analysis, 5 plan to offer assessment services of some sort. 3D printing and usability/user experience were ranked at 7 respectively as services that are NOT planned to be offered. The majority of reasons for services that were either not offered or were not planned on being offered was that they were already available elsewhere on campus or in the library and were not a specific part of the center per se. These other offices ranged from other departments within the library itself (Scholarly Communications, Digital Scholarship Services), or a separate office such as Central Technology Services, DSC and Digitization Lab, Media Development Center. While most of the services available are free, 6 institutions charge for printing, while 4 charge for hosting servers and event planning. 5
Spaces available The most popular types of spaces were used for consultation 18, collaboration 17, meetings 16 and staff/office areas 15, with group project and study rooms coming in last at 10. More specialized spaces such as usability labs have never been available with 15 respondents indicating this. Most of the qualitative responses mentioned that spaces such as the ones listed above were available elsewhere in the library, such as a Media Studio. 6
Programming available There were two ties between the programming that was offered at most of the respondents’ institutions: • Open houses and workshops 16 respondents • Office hours and multi-session workshops 15 respondents Two other types of programming came in with 14 respondents, discussion groups and library instruction classes. Speaker series was offered at 13 institutions. Digital badges and certificates were among the most rated services that had never been offered. 7
Equipment/technology sources The most widely offered items for checkout were cables 13, adaptors 12, laptops and computers 11 and iPads 10. Robotics kits and inventor kits were among the tools that ranked highest as not being offered at 15, followed by 3D printing and scanning 8. The main reason was again that these resources were available elsewhere in the library or as part of a dedicated 3D lab which about 5 respondents named specifically. 8
Staffing and compensation The highest type of staffing ranked at 17 was staff, specialized faculty (data science, etc.) at 15, followed by undergraduate students at 14, faculty at 12. Graduate students came in at 11. The average pay for undergraduate students was most often offered between $10-$15/hr with 12 institutions paying that rate. Graduate students were split with 5 institutions offering $10$15/hr and 6 offering $15-$20/hr.
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Hours of service 14 institutions stated they had specific hours for both drop-in assistance and appointments. 12 indicated they were not open the same hours as the library and were also not open when there was no staff (faculty, staff, students) present. Training Most institutions offered a wide variety of training opportunities ranging from workshops 19, individualized assistance as needed 18, and online materials 16 and readings 10. Only 6 indicated they had a fully dedicated program and 5 plan to offer one. Marketing There was quite a bit of variety in the marketing strategies employed, but the numbers ranked relatively high in most categories: • 19 Email and word of mouth • 18 Web presence • 17 Listservs and social media 10
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14 Posters and flyers 13 Liaison program and digital signage
In addition, only about 7 institutions plan to utilize a formal marketing plan. Partnerships Highest ranked partnerships include Information Technology office 17, Humanities departments 15, Office of Research 12, with a tie at 11 for Computing centers, Graduate schools and Grant/Funding offices. Summary analysis: This survey has revealed a number of interesting patterns. It appears that most digital scholarship centers have specialized functions such as data curation and analysis services. They function separately from other areas of the library and offer basic meeting and collaboration spaces. In addition, they provide basic tools for checkout such as laptops and do not see a need to replicate services such as 3D printing support that are offered elsewhere in the library itself or on campus. Hours of availability are tied mostly to the library building itself as well as the presence of some level of staffing. Staffing was a surprising element with staff being the most common type of position available with specialized faculty functions and undergraduate student support. It was not clear from the responses if the staff present in the center also had specialized skillsets and positions. Hourly rates for student support did not differ much between graduate and undergraduate students, although some offered a higher pay for graduate students. Training is offered in a variety of modes with an almost equal balance between workshops and on a per-needed basis. Marketing involved a multi-pronged approach with email being the most popular, followed by a web presence and advertising via social media. It was also interesting to note that the mostranked partnerships occurred with IT offices given that it wasn’t clear how the services offered in these centers relied on collaboration with campus or library IT. Presumably some of the functions of data curation and analysis also involved underlying structures such as server space and computing capabilities which the IT offices would be able to offer but the comments from the respondents did not make that connection clear. In addition, only one or two institutions indicated a relationship with a STEM type department which presumes that most of the usage for these centers comes in the form of digital humanity projects which then branch out to include research and IT support as needed. It appears that the main form of collaboration occurs on specific projects that are discussed via drop-in or 11
consultation hours and that some of the other work needed to support the project follows in other spaces either in the library or on campus. So rather than acting as the end stop of the process, these centers become clearinghouses where the initial request for support is made then referred or developed further with other partners depending on the nature of the project. Appendix: Survey Instrument 2015-2016 ACRL Digital Scholarship Center Interest Group Survey Q1 Thank you for responding to our invitation to participate in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Digital Scholarship Center Interest Group (DSCIG) 2015 - 2016 survey. The purpose of this survey is to gather information about academic library-based digital scholarship centers in the United States, in order to create a searchable list of service, spaces, programming, and operational information related to these organizations. We anticipate this survey will take approximately 10 minutes of time to complete and Information submitted to this survey will be available via the ACRL-DSCIG web site in the future. If you have any questions or problems with the survey, please feel free to contact Cinthya Ippoliti at
[email protected]. Note: It is easier to complete this survey on a computer than on a mobile device with a small screen. Your responses are saved automatically when you move to the next page. If you are unable to complete the survey in one session, you will be able to finish at a later time using the link provided in your email invitation. Throughout the survey, you will be invited to provide open-ended comments on specific topics. If nothing comes to mind, please leave comment fields blank. In addition, there will be a general open-ended comment field at the end of the survey. Q2 Your Name (First & Last) Q3 Your Email Address Q4 Your Job Title Q5 Your University Name (please include campus, if applicable) (e.g., University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign) Q6 Your Library Name (e.g., University Library) Q7 Does your university library currently have a Digital Scholarship Center (DSC)? Yes (1) No (2) Q8 Does your university library have any plans to create a Digital Scholarship Center in the near future? Please explain. Q9 Center Name(e.g., Scholarly Commons, Digital Scholarship Lab) 12
Q10 Year Center was funded? Q11 Year Center was opened? Q12 Please describe any needs assessment efforts undertaken by your university and/or university library prior to establishing the Center.
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Q13 Please indicate which of the services your DSC offers, plans to offer, discontinued offering, or has never offered. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. SERVICES Currently offers (1)
Plans to offer (2)
No longer offers (3)
OTHER Has never offered (4)
Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
3D Modeling (1)
3D Printing (2)
Assessment (3)
Data Use & Analysis (4)
Data Visualization (5)
Digital Hosting (6)
Digital Preservation/Curation (7)
Digital Project Management (8)
Digital Publishing (9)
Digitization (10)
Geographic Information Systems (11)
Intellectual Property/Copyright (12)
Metadata (13)
Scholarly Communication (14)
Text Encoding (15)
Text Mining & Analysis (16)
Usability/ User Experience (17)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q14 Please indicate what types of spaces are available, may be available, are no longer available, or have never been available in your DSC. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. SPACES Currently available (1)
Planning to make available (2)
No longer available (3)
OTHER Has never been available (4)
Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
Classroom/Workshop room(s) (1)
Collaboration station(s) (2)
Consultation space(s) (3)
Group project room(s) (4)
Group study room(s) (5)
Fabrication/Makerspace(s) (6)
Media production studio(s) -audio (e.g., podcasting) (7)
Media production studio(s) -video recording (8)
Meeting room(s) (9)
Staff desk/office area (12)
Visualization studio(s) (10)
Usability lab(s) (11)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q15 Please indicate what types of programming/events your DSC offers, plans to offer, no longer offers, or has never offered. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. PROGRAMMING and EVENTS Currently offers (1)
Plans to offer (2)
No longer offers (3)
Has never offered (4)
OTHER Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
Brown bag lunch(es) (2)
Certificate(s) (3)
Conference(s) (4)
Credit-bearing course(s) (5)
Digital badge(s) (1)
Discussion group(s) (6)
Fellowship(s) (7)
Internship(s) (8)
Library instruction class(es) (9)
Networking event(s) (10)
Office hour(s) (11)
Open house(s) (12)
Speaker series (13)
Tutoring (15)
Workshop series (multi-session) (16)
Workshop session(s) (stand-alone) (17)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q16 Please indicate what types of equipment your DSC makes available, is planning to make available, no longer makes available, or has never made available. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. EQUIPMENT / TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES Currently available (1)
Planning to make available (2)
No longer available (3)
Has never been available (4)
OTHER
Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
3D Printer(s) (1)
3D Scanner(s) (2)
Adaptors (e.g., VGA to Mac) (3)
Cables (e.g., HDMI, VGA) (4)
High-Performance Computer(s) (5)
Inventor Kit(s) (e.g., arduino, raspberry pi) (6)
iPad(s) (7)
Laptop(s) (8)
Large-Format Printer(s) (9)
Robotics Kit(s) (10)
Voice Recorder(s) (11)
Tablet(s) (e.g., Waucom with stylus) (12)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q17 Please indicate which of the following types of work positions your DSC has filled, plans to fill, no longer fills, or has never filled. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. STAFFING INFORMATION Currently fills (1)
Plans to fill (2)
No longer fills (3)
Has never filled (4)
OTHER Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
Faculty Library (1)
Faculty - NonLibrary (e.g., English Department) (9)
Intern(s) (2)
Postdoctoral Fellow(s) (3)
Specialized Faculty/Staff (e.g., data science specialist) (4)
Staff (5)
Student employee(s) graduate (6)
Student employee(s) undergraduate (7)
Volunteer(s) (8)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q18 Please provide your student employee hourly wage below. HOURLY WAGE Less than $10 / hr (1)
$10 - $15 / hr (2)
$15 - $20 / hr (3)
OTHER More than $20 / hr (4)
Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
Undergraduate students (1)
Graduate students (2)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q19 Please select the options below that best describe your DSC staffing levels/models. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. STAFFING LEVELS AND MODELS Yes (1)
No (2)
OTHER
Other (please specify in comments field) (3)
Do you have specific Center hours for drop-in assistance? (1)
Do you have specific Center hours for appointments and consultations? (2)
Are your Center hours the same as your library facility? (3)
Are your Center hours the same as other library service desk(s) (e.g., reference, circulation)? (4)
Is your Center open for patron use when no faculty/staff/student workers are present? (5)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q20 Please indicate which type(s) of internal training (i.e., for library faculty/staff/student workers) your DSC offers, plans to offer, no longer offers, or has never offered. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. TRAINING Currently offers (1)
Plans to offer (2)
No longer offers (3)
OTHER Has never offered (4)
Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
As needed, on an individual basis (1)
Comprehensive training program across service areas (2)
Self-directed readings (3)
Workshops (in person or online) (4)
Online materials/tutorials (6)
N/A - We already had the necessary skillset(s) (5)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q21 Please indicate which of the following promotional/communication methods/tools does your DSC currently utilizes, plans to utilize, no longer utilizes, or has never utilized. Please add a comment to explain your responses in the "Other" categories. COMMUNICATION/MARKETING Currently utilizes (1)
Plans to utilize (2)
No longer utilizes (3)
Has never utilized (4)
OTHER Other (please specify in comments field) (5)
Blog (1)
Digital signage (2)
Liaison program (3)
Email (4)
List-serv (5)
Marketing plan (in collaboration with Marketing/Communication unit) (6)
Posters/flyers (7)
Social media (8)
Table tents (9)
Web prescence (10)
Word of mouth (11)
Fill in comments for "Other" field (1)
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Q22 If your DSC charges for any services, please indicate which services below. Please select all that apply: Consultations (1) Events (2) Hosting (e.g., servers) (3) Printing (4) Scanning (5) Workshops (6) Other (please specify in comments) (7) ____________________ Q23 Who are your campus/community partners? Please select all that apply: Computing Centers (including supercomputing centers) (1) Graduate School (2) Grant/Funding Office (3) Humanities Departments (4) Information Technology Office (5) Local community-based organizations (6) Local fabrication/makerspaces (7) Local government offices (8) Local libraries (9) Office of General Counsel/Copyright Office (10) Office of Research (11) Office of Undergraduate Research (12) Office of Postdoctoral Fellows (13) STEM Department(s) (14) University Press (15) Other (16) ____________________ Q24 Please provide additional comments on campus partnership engagement levels, formal committees, resources, and/or other relevant activities your partners may offer. Q25 Please share any additional comments below: Q26 By clicking the "next" button below, you will submit your survey responses.
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