28 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
formal charter for this collaboration laying out a series of reciprocal activities. One of the important initiatives described
in this charter is the joint Digital Humanities Incubator. The Digital Humanities Incubator is a program intended to help
introduce University Libraries faculty, staff, and graduate assistants to digital humanities through a series of workshops,
tutorials, “office hours,” and project consultations. The four workshops will feature 1) an Introduction to Digital
Humanities, 2) a workshop on developing your research ideas, 3) a workshop on working with data, and 4) project
development best practices. Participants who attend the entire workshop sequence will be guided through the process
of developing digital humanities project ideas, finding data, evaluating tools, and crafting a compelling proposal for
funding support (internal or external).
The UofL Archives &Special Collections (ASC) used crowd-sourcing to transcribe individual articles from the Louisville
Leader, an African American newspaper published in Louisville from 1917 to 1950. These transcriptions are then
incorporated into the Libraries’ Digital Collections, giving researchers the ability to keyword search growing portions of
the paper.
The Visualization Studio is a state-of-the-art digital facility created to provide support for faculty researchers. Its primary
feature is a high-resolution display wall with surround sound. The studio is designed to provide researchers with
significant visual real estate for working with digital information. The display’s 34.5 million pixels allow for insight and
overview that is impossible to achieve with a desktop monitor or standard projector. Through discussions with faculty,
we foresee exciting uses for the Visualization Wall: biologists examining the smallest sub-cellular details in microscopic
imagery urban planners viewing entire road corridors while still being able to discern sidewalks, power lines, and
even lane markings artists examining dynamic digital art astronomers analyzing deep-space telescopic imagery and
sociologists digging into huge spreadsheets of data.
There has been a great deal of innovative activity related to library commons spaces, specifically the Library 2 West
project, and Library East Commons project. Most recently, the library has been involved with the Clough Undergraduate
Learning Commons, which included a great deal of experimentation and prototyping in library spaces while the Clough
Commons was under construction.
These fall into three main categories.
I. Internal/ Business Process Oriented: Penn is a co-developer of the Kuali Open Library Environment. We have received
funding from IMLS to develop Decision Support Technology, currently in the field as MetriDoc.
II. Discovery/Repository Services: The Libraries have been aggressively developing enhanced discovery and delivery
services based on Solr/Lucene and related XML parsing technology. Known internally as the Digital Library Architecture
(DLA), this software provides the UI for our public catalog (http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/franklin/index.html) the
account services associated with the catalog and interactive capabilities that allow users to engage various access
services from within the catalog. Associated with the DLA for discovery/delivery is a set of integrated technologies
for ingesting and preserving a wide array of digital content, DLA-R (for repository). Repository services will provide
the backbone for digital reformatting, dissemination of Penn scholarship, ingestion of research data, and linkage to
knowledge management services such as VIVO.
III. New Lines of Service: The Libraries at Penn have rolled out a research intelligence service, VIVO and installed
supporting technology (Symplectic/Elements) to provide faculty tools for networking within their disciplines, showcasing
their publications, and managing their promotion and tenure process. The Libraries also manage courseware and are
bringing on line related curriculum and research support technologies, such as Omeka service, streaming media, and
video capture. While these initiatives employ established technologies, innovation comes through the Libraries providing
enterprise-level support for new forms of service.
To provide digitization services for hire to other public institutions in the state, in particular, the Utah State Historical
Society (USHS).
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