Grounding Digital Scholarship in the Analog

Reimagining Library Fellowships Post-Pandemic

Abstract

A digital object is grounded in the analog. By examining the object in a continuum rather than its current state, we can better understand both the analog item and its digital representation. As part of this pedagogical exploration, we reimagined a year-long, library-based, digital scholarship fellowship that provides hands-on instruction for undergraduate students, grounded in physical collections and spaces,but resulting in digital manifestations. The fellowship focuses on social justice by highlighting ethical issues in the field of digital scholarship, specifically exploring the topics of labor, race, gender, disability, infrastructure, and environmental inequality. We frame the work through a pedagogy of play, or critical making, that encourages students to embrace failure.

As instructors and collaborators, our philosophy is deeply informed by the scholarship of André Brock, Miriam Posner, and Katherine Harris, which manifests in the readings and activities we integrate into the course. In the fellowship, students grapple with the theoretical work of a diverse set of scholars (Simone Browne, Shannon Mattern, Lisa Nakamura, Lauren Klein, Catherine D'Agnozio, etc.) and experiment with a wide range of kinesthetic, object-oriented digital literacy activities. Each week, students create digital objects and interact via touch, smell, and feel with analog objects. Our discussions act as the bridge between these two modes, making their relationship explicit. Without the analog objects, the relationship and history these objects have with our library would be lost.