CNI Spring 2018 Membership Meeting

Over at least the last decade, scholarship has predominantly originated in digital formats. Scholars, researchers, and students are therefore increasingly in need of skills related to digital tools and methodologies (particularly in the digital humanities), data literacy and manipulation, data management, and data archiving and preservation. Libraries, traditionally well suited to assisting users with many of these topics in analog formats, are now playing larger, more active roles in the digital environment. One growing approach is the provision of digital scholarship services and centers. This project briefing outlines the planning and early implementation of one such center at the University of Houston Libraries. In this project briefing, presenters will: (a) address the methodologies used to formulate two core strategies for the establishment of the Digital Research Commons (DRC), a digital scholarship roadmap for the Libraries and an implementation plan for the DRC; (b) describe the development of the physical facility; (c) outline expertise and initial programming and services offered in the DRC; and (d) discuss the early lessons learned when implementing the DRC, particularly when key planning activities took place before the hiring of a DRC director. The presentation will conclude by reflecting on the opportunities and challenges of developing the DRC concurrently with the creation and implementation of the Libraries' strategic plan.