Scholarship and the Digital Liberal Arts

Digital tools used effectively can make your research process easier. While there may be a learning curve for many new technology users, using the digital tool enables the researcher to process information faster and/or provide a new means for analysis or dissemination.

Here are two ways that you can consider implementing digital technology into your own scholarship: Conducting/Analyzing Research and Disseminating Research.

Conducting/Analyzing Research

Using Digital Technologies and Digital Liberal Arts methodologies to conduct your research means that the digital tool that you are using is assisting with the analysis of your information or data.

Example: Word clouds and other text analysis tools to analyze large amounts of text to determine word count, usage, placement, etc. in digital documents.

Disseminating Research

Using Digital Technologies and Digital Liberal Arts methodologies to disseminate research means using technology to share your research with others in a digital, visual, and/or online way.

Example: Using a digital map to display the research that was conducted through traditional humanities research methods to display and disseminate research to a public and academic audience on a website.

Process for Implementing a Digital Project into Scholarship

Implementing digital methodologies into a research project is not always an easy process, especially if it's your first time. To help ensure a successful experience, we recommend a process that looks similar to the flowchart below. Meeting with the Digital Liberal Arts librarian at the beginning of the project is highly recommended.