New centralized services connect faculty with technology access and support
Faculty and graduate students are creating more digital research than ever before, and a new department in University Libraries helps them manage all aspects of their digital scholarship.
“Digital Research Services is dedicated to supporting researchers with their digital scholarship, which we define as data management, data visualization, data analysis, digital publishing and archiving,” says Kate Boyd, director of the new department.
“For the past several years, I have watched or been a part of digital projects on campus and have seen an explosion in the technology available to do research,” Boyd says. “There are pockets of expertise all over campus with different levels of support and software knowledge. The new Digital Research Services department, located in Thomas Cooper Library, is here to assist with connecting those pockets on campus and working with faculty and students on data management, research data archiving, data visualization, including GIS support, and digital projects and publishing. We want to help make digital research tools accessible to as many scholars on campus as possible, be it in the library or another department on campus.”
The department held its first event in August. Thirty faculty and graduate students attended the two-day Digital Boot Camp, which focused on sharing information about the resources available from the Libraries and other partners on campus.
Boot Camp participants learned about:
- Resources for increasing their online presence and data management planning
- Developing an effective research presence and promoting their work
- Citation management software
- Data collection, analysis, and visualization in research practice
- Visualization concepts and tools
- One-on-one research data management consultations
- Web platforms for digital projects
Digital Research Services is also home to the Libraries’ new Data Visualization Lab, complete with an 82” screen and three computers with GIS and data visualization software.
Meet our department members:
Stacy Winchester, Research Data Librarian, holds a BS in Biological Sciences from Clemson University, an MLIS from the University of South Carolina, and a Graduate Academic Certificate in Digital Curation and Data Management from the University of North Texas. Stacy helps faculty and students with data management planning and best practices, data sharing and open dataset location.
- Data Management: For assistance with data management, locating open data sets, sharing data, creating quality metadata for your data, and more, contact Stacy Winchester.
Amie Freeman, Scholarly Communication Librarian, holds a BA in International Studies and an MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Amie oversees Scholar Commons, UofSC’s institutional repository, and administers the SCoer open education award. She works closely with faculty and students on open access and licensing, digital publishing and open educational resources (OER).
- Scholarly Communication: For support for the creation, evaluation, dissemination, and preservation of your research and other scholarly works in both traditional and emerging formats, or if you would like to introduce new software for hosting and creating digital projects, contact Amie Freeman.
Kate Boyd, Director of Digital Research Services, holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MLIS from the University of Michigan. She supports and promotes the new services for digital scholarship on campus. For fifteen years she has been leading the Libraries’ Digital Collections Department and co-directing the South Carolina Digital Library.
- Data and Information Visualization: For assistance with visualizing your data through Tableau, GIS, and open source tools, or access to the Data Visualization Lab, contact Kate Boyd.
- Do you have a new digital research idea and are not sure how to get started? Contact Kate Boyd.
Visit us online or contact us directly to learn more about how we can assist you.