Creating capacity for digital projects. A case study in identifying and building upon strengths
| Pages | 9-19 |
| Date | 12 February 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-08-2017-0026 |
| Published date | 12 February 2018 |
| Author | Jess Newman,Suzanne Bonefas,Wendy Trenthem |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
Creating capacity for
digital projects
A case study in identifying and building
upon strengths
Jess Newman,Suzanne Bonefas and Wendy Trenthem
Information Services, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This paper offers a case study in creating capacity for digital initiatives at Rhodes College in
Memphis, Tennessee through an exploration of the Crossroads to Freedom program, a decade-long digital
public history initiative. At present, digital scholarship and preservation work falls under the purview of
information services (IS), a mergedinformation technology (IT) and library division and home to the digital
preservation and scholarship (DPS) team. DPS is a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate students, IS
staff and variousinternal and external partners.
Design/methodology/approach –By exploring the evolution of digitalprojects at a small, liberal arts
college, this paper will introducereaders to one dynamic path to cultivating capacity and support for digital
initiativeswithin the confines of limited staffing and monetary resources.
Findings –Topics and strategiesinclude working effectively with communitypartners, leveraging existing
strengths, building and sustaining a community of practice (CoP), integrating undergraduates as full staff
membersand navigating cultural change within the libraryand higher education more broadly.
Originality/value –This paper demonstrates a decade of successful innovation and adaptation to the
changing landscape of digital initiatives and the library’s role in higher education that is rooted in
community-centric commitment to social justice. Discussion of these strategies and theoretical frameworks
should prove helpful to institutions looking to reimagine traditional approaches to digital archives and
scholarshipprograms.
Keywords Social justice, Academic library, Digital collections, Community of practice, Archives,
Public history
Paper type Case study
This paper will follow the journeyof Rhodes College to institutionalize a digital preservation
and scholarship (DPS) program and offer up lessons learned along the way. From the
beginning, this work was grounded in a community-centric and social justice-minded
approach to digital collections. The three interconnected threads of this narrative and the
foundation for supportingthis work are:
(1) forming and maintaining partnerships built upon community ownership of
programming and assets;
(2) promoting and sustaining an abundance mindset for digital initiatives, linked with
a community of practice (CoP) model of collaboration; and
(3) incorporating undergraduate students as full team members.
The focus is not on a single strategy but on the ways that the sum of these approaches
continues to scaffold Rhodes’digital programming as the College adapts to the changing
infrastructureand emerging needs of both internal and external partners.
Creating
capacity for
digital projects
9
Received1 August 2017
Revised21 September 2017
Accepted21 September 2017
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.34 No. 1, 2018
pp. 9-19
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-08-2017-0026
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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