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|  | Home > About Us > News > Press Releases > Press Releases 2007 > New Center Created to Manage Digital Scholarship October 31, 2007 NEW CENTER CREATED TO MANAGE DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP The Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries have announced the creation of the Digital Research and Curation Center to manage, preserve, and provide access to the mounting digital scholarship generated by faculty and researchers at the university. No longer limited only to the sciences, the creation of datasets to support teaching and scholarship is becoming increasingly common in the humanities. “It is critical for the library at a research-intensive university like Hopkins to be on the forefront of capturing this digital scholarship and ensuring that it is usefully organized for and available to both current and future generations of researchers,” said Winston Tabb, Sheridan dean of university libraries at Johns Hopkins. Sayeed Choudhury, who was recently promoted to associate dean of university libraries at Johns Hopkins, is also the Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center. The DRCC builds upon the extensive digital library track record of the former Digital Knowledge Center, established in 1997. “The new center is a key element of the Libraries’ digital program, which is looking beyond merely preserving immense digital data sets,” he said. “Our librarians and technology specialists are working collaboratively with faculty across a broad range of disciplines to use the data in innovative ways that were not possible in the print world.” One of the flag-ship digital initiatives in the humanities is the Roman de la Rose, which enables new approaches to medieval studies through the creation of digital surrogates, transcriptions, and text and image searching. Initially a collaborative effort between the Libraries and French and humanities professor Stephen G. Nichols in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the foundation-funded project spans a decade and now includes medieval scholars, librarians, and technical specialists at Johns Hopkins and other research institutions around the world. The Digital Research and Curation Center is also tackling the data-intensive challenge of astronomical data sets in its work with astronomers at Johns Hopkins and the National Virtual Observatory. Begun in 2001 by Professor Alexander Szalay in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the NVO collects databases of telescopic images from observatories around the world to give researchers universal access to a complete view of the skies. The center has begun work on creating a digital archive and data set for the NVO, which has potential for new modes of astronomical inquiry that were unimaginable a few years ago. “The creation of the new center allows us to focus our experience, energy, and expertise in designing a flexible infrastructure to support digital curation and research across a broad range of disciplines,” said Tabb. “Because of the speed at which digital scholarship is being generated, it is essential for the library to take the lead in partnering with the faculty to capture and help create new knowledge. It’s an exhilarating prospect.” ### Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at: Headlines@Hopkins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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