A single-source guide to the practices of the Center for Digital Scholarship at the Brown University Library
The handbook provides a reference for everything from our structure and overall mandate, down to day-to-day operations. It aims to encapsulate “how we do things at CDS” for incoming staff and collaborators.
As is the case with all parts of the Handbook, this is a living document in which changes are encouraged as our practices mature and develop. This is version 2024.1
Contents
- Mission statement
- Structure and Operations
- Project Guidelines
- Teaching and Learning
CDS Mission Statement
The University’s digital scholarship hub, the Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) is a leader in digital scholarship and digital publication, highly regarded for the quality of both our collaborations and our finished products. CDS provides expertise, services, and teaching in digital scholarship methodologies, project development, and publication in order to:
- encourage and guide intellectual exploration and creativity through collaboration with faculty, students and staff, and departments and centers across campus, and
- support transformative approaches to research and learning and the creation of new scholarship, and innovative scholarly communication.
- advance digital scholarship by making it more inclusive and open; responsive to diverse perspectives; and focused and intentional about ethical and cultural concerns.
Structure and Operations
This section describes how CDS and Brown University Digital Publication (BUDP) is organizationally structured, and gives a high-level overview of our project intake process.
Project Guidelines
A major part of CDS’ portfolio is the creation of novel forms of digital scholarship; we have a defined process for initiating, running, and ending projects—as well as preserving their products.
See Project Guidelines, Planning, and Management
Supported technologies
CDS specializes in a curated technology toolset that allows us to offer nearly all digital scholarship methods needed by the campus community, while keeping our expertise focussed and scoped.
While we may occasionally use technologies outside of those listed here, we do not guarantee the level of expertise of those we have officially designated as “supported”.
See CDS Supported Technologies
Development practices
When building projects, CDS seeks to adhere to a commonly agreed-upon set of practices; these are, and likely will always be, subject to change as technologies and processes evolve. We strive to keep the documentation of these practices as up-to-date as possible.
Note that projects adhere to the Brown University visual identity guidelines—particularly with regards to the use of the Brown logo and other branding elements. There are no library-specific design requirements for CDS projects unless hosted on library.brown.edu.
See CDS Development and Technical Practices
Teaching and Learning
CDS offers a variety of instruction services that blend the theoretical and concrete, so that students learn how to use current tools, but are also able to exercise critical thinking about future tools and methods.
Spaces
CDS oversees a number of spaces within the Rockefeller Library, including a classroom with a 16×7 foot display wall and a small recording room suitable for capturing podcasts and close video.
See CDS Spaces for a description of policies and guidelines governing these spaces; for a more general introduction and instructions on how to reserve them, see the Studio page on our website.