New modes of digital scholarship have transformed the academic librarian’s role. Librarians traditionally organize, preserve, and connect researchers to the products of research and scholarly inquiry. Today, librarians pursue those same goals in nontraditional ways. At the UT Libraries, twenty-first-century services for university researchers are gathered under the title Scholars’ Collaborative.

Our librarians are proficient in many aspects of digital scholarship, including digital media, geographic information systems, research data management, and the digital humanities. Librarians collaborate with university scholars throughout the research process. Through the Scholars’ Collaborative, librarians help researchers prepare data management plans required by government grant-funding agencies; incorporate geospatial data or data visualization techniques into digital projects; or preserve and publish their scholarly work in online repositories.

Librarians are available to confer on the best software, tools, and methods for digital projects.

Interior Design professor Liz Teston partnered with the Scholars’ Collaborative on her Knoxville Oral Histories project, which explores Knoxville’s architecture through memories of Market Square. She wanted to showcase her work online, follow best practices for file preservation, and increase visibility of her research. Librarian Ashley Maynor assisted with website design and with preparation of digital objects and metadata to enhance discovery of the project. The two are currently working together to add interactive data maps to the website.

Members of the Scholars’ Collaborative also offer workshops and classroom instruction on digital tools and best practices in digital scholarship.

Our librarians’ expertise with digital scholarship and data can help UT scholars, artists, and innovators create and share their work and demonstrate its value to the university and beyond.

Visit library.utk.edu/scholar to learn more about the Scholars’ Collaborative.