About the DSI

The University Library Center for Digital Scholarship offers two related spaces for digital experimentation and creation:

-Digital Scholarship Commons (DSC) in McHenry Library

-Digital Scholarship Innovation Studio (DSI) in Science and Engineering Library

Three values that we strongly believe in our spaces are:

Curiosity: To encourage people to try new things that interest them.

Conversation: To engage in collaborative work and incorporate multiple perspectives.

Experimentation: To be comfortable with learning through trying and recognize the value of iterative learning through our failures. 

 

Our Goals

Provide access to hardware and software that enable new modes of knowledge building

We are advocates for using digital technologies in ways that allow students, faculty, and researchers to explore their subjects in new and meaningful ways. This exploration can lead to new ways of understanding information.  Our goal is to provide access to these modes of knowledge by providing checkout equipment, maintaining the digital scholarship computers with related software, and offering skills based workshops and consultations to help aspiring digital scholars.

Democratizing access to technology

Both the David Kirk Digital Scholarship Commons (DSC) and the Digital Innovation Studio (DSI) provide access to equipment free of use.  As we grow and expand, we are committed to continuing free and low cost solutions.  We recognize that learning new technologies can be costly, both to access the equipment as well as the use of consumable materials used during the learning process for activities like 3D printing. 

Additionally, not all students come with the same level of knowledge of equipment.  Through our workshop series, we aim to provide various levels of instruction and modes of learning to meet students and instructors at their level of knowledge and comfort.  In our spaces, we strive to provide a judgment free learning zone, with access to knowledgeable peers available for support, every step of the way.  We are always striving to improve these efforts, and welcome your feedback at digitalscholarship@ucsc.edu.

 

Create opportunities for students to learn through Critical Making

Critical making is the process of iterative learning through hands-on making and conceptual exploration.  We recognize that the technologies in our Digital Scholarship Innovation Studio are suited to this type of learning.  Our DSI student assistants are trained to help at every step of the process and to engage in troubleshooting steps with students in the space.  As we grow our programming, we aim to incorporate specific opportunities and programs that integrate Critical Making.

 

Build partnerships with UCSC faculty and staff to facilitate digital research 

We recognize that digital scholarship is often the product of successful collaborations. Partnerships of this nature benefit all of our communities by supporting faculty research projects and keeping our own technical and research related skills up to date.  These projects position us to provide more informed consultations for students and researchers.  Where we are able to collaborate with community partners, we are able to learn more about community needs and to be more engaged with the larger public.

 

 

Develop and maintain spaces that foster experimentation and innovation

Our spaces provide not only access to the technologies that allow our work to be done, but also room to engage with the technologies and methods that we support.  As we continue to review and update our program each year, our goal is to make sure those spaces are maintained in ways that reflect the needs of our campus community in the realm of digital scholarship.