Assessing safe spaces for digital scholarship in the library

Abstract

Background. Academic libraries, and the students and faculty that they serve, have different definitions of safe space. The attempts of both parties to construct a safe space for digital scholarship in the library can clash based on these divergent perspectives. While the number of academic libraries providing some form of digital scholarship support is increasing, the library definition of safe space, as well as the working culture of the library, has the potential to render libraries unsafe spaces for innovation and digital scholarship. Objectives. The author of this paper will address the challenges that academic libraries face in creating safe spaces for digital scholarship. Major challenges include differences in working and leadership styles among different librarians, as well as the library's assumption that academic libraries automatically function as safe spaces. Results. To date no safe space assessment tool exists specifically for academic libraries or any organization that wishes to provide STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related education. Using models for organizational change and strategic planning, the author proposes a series of recommendations and questions that academic libraries seeking to implement or improve digital scholarship services should investigate.

Incorporating digital scholarship content in South African library and information science schools

“…Digital literacies such as social media and digital media have been credited as professional and legitimate approaches to research and teaching and learning (Rumsey, 2011; Ayinde and Kirkwood, 2020). Attached to that Wexelbaum (2016) cites that web design, computer programming, text coding, geographic systems and mapping, data analysis and storage, app development, online gaming and 3D animation are digitals scholarship expertise. Raju (2015) adds that creating and providing access to digital documents and data, metadata handling, managing institutional repositories (IRs), digital curation and research data management (RDM) are key components of digital scholarship.…”

“…However, it is unclear how LIS schools should incorporate these contents into their curricula. Other scholars suggest collaboration with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields since most digital scholarship content owes its origins to STEM (Wexelbaum, 2016; Raffaghelli, 2017).…”