All posts by eclay

Resistance is Futile…Philander Smith College

We arrived in mass from the hotel shuttle bus, full of excitement and ready to take over the Robert W. Woodruff Library, much like the Borg Collective (A nasty group of cybernetic beings) in their attempt at intergalactic takeover. Alas, we were foiled by the security guard at the front desk, who firmly told us our invasion would be limited to Room 217. In spite of a reduction in our initial plan for world digital scholarship domination, we marched on to Room 217 and thus began our adventure at the 2014 Emory Center for Digital Scholarship/HBCU Library Alliance Summer Institute.

The ECDS-lings were there when we arrive holding strange instruments-    information packets and flash drives- in their hands. As our guides, the ECDS-lings are a friendly and courteous species. They set out to familiarize us with this creatively unexplored quadrant of the GLAM and Digital Scholarship universe. During our introduction exercise, the three Sharons and the three Jeans were in the back plotting a secret takeover of their own. With a stockpile of digital humanities tools, mobile tour apps, and a digital asset management system, the ECDSlings began training us in the strategies and techniques of digital projects. Our plan is to learn all we can from the ECDslings, take this new information back to our institutional dwellings, and share what we learned with higher command… in addition to sharing with our students, faculty, and colleagues.