Library as Lab: Integrating Digital Scholarship Services, Digital Collections, and Expertise

Abstract

Over the past decade, we at the UT Libraries have honed a clear vision for digital scholarship that is centered around critical engagement with our collections and our experts to facilitate learning and advance research. For many years our users told us that they were interested in using the library as their lab- a place where they could experiment with new approaches to scholarship. They were seeking a space equipped with robust technology, access to tools, collections and library experts, and a variety of productivity environments for individual and group work. In October 2023, we achieved a significant milestone on our journey toward realizing this vision when we opened the Scholars Lab in our main library. The Scholars Lab is a digital scholarship center, a hub focused on creativity, community, and collections. In this presentation we will talk about the past, present, and future of digital scholarship at UT Libraries- the foundation that we're building on, exciting early successes, and where we hope to go in the future, as well as address challenges encountered. This session will be useful for those working directly with users, as well as those interested in leveraging digital scholarship and digital humanities approaches to enhance library engagement.