The DSN-IE strategy group works to create a roadmap for institutional and national Digital Scholarship while exploring approaches to quantify and communicate value.
Theme rationale
After CONUL Digital Scholarship survey (2019), the following steps were taken to further explore the Irish Digital Scholarship landscape, talk to stakeholders, and define collective next steps.
The DSN-IE strategy work provides advice for Irish Libraries who are engaging in enabling Digital Scholarship activities. We are investigating how modern digital scholarship functions in Irish GLAM institutions work with evolving user, stakeholder, and research requirements. Underpinning this is the question of how we can best enable Digital Scholarship by taking a national and institutional view to both encourage and facilitate strategic rethinking, while harnessing existing and new partnership, functions, and services. Digital Scholarship activity takes place using a range of multimodal research methods that the library enables through its functions.
A first step we will communicate Digital Scholarship value and define the business case. Top level buy-in is essential to secure senior management commitment, set clear targets, and to secure investment. National DSN-IE workshops found the grassroots Digital Scholarship community needs to advocate for the potential and current breadth of activity in GLAM and Higher Education (HE) Digital Scholarship. Advocacy is required to communicate activity and also define value for strategic/high-level support. While the digital shift has accelerated in recent times, the GLAM sector can be viewed, both internally and externally, as traditional and paper focused. As a collective, the DSN-IE community will raise awareness and acceptance of the relevance and value of Digital Scholarship. With the aim to gain buy-in from key stakeholders, funders, and players locally and nationally. Work needs to be done to solidify and sustain Digital Scholarship funding and institutional understanding. We need to be able to easily explain to colleagues that Digital Scholarship is a worthwhile investment. Also, Digital Scholarship focused staff should be equipped with the language and knowledge to advocate for Digital Scholarship within institutions.
Theme outputs
Toolkits for the implementation of:
Culminating in a Digital Scholarship implementation roadmap guide.