About
Here is how OCL DIGITAL acts as the hub of digital academic activity on campus:
Digital Scholarship
Digital scholarship is scholarship. Doing digital scholarship draws on a range of expertise from across the college. As project managers, OCL DIGITAL brings together researchers from different scholarly disciplines and the Libraries, draws on resources from distinct units on campus, and works collaboratively on digital projects, grants, teaching, and learning.
OCL DIGITAL asks difficult questions about digital scholarship and scholarly communication, recognizing that digital tools and methods can enhance scholarship in innovative ways, yet compound inequities and injustices as well. OCL DIGITAL works to reduce barriers wherever possible. Because digital scholarship imagines new ways to do research and disseminate results, it also presents opportunities to address critical digital literacy and social justice.
Builds interdisciplinary teams within the libraries and the academic community to develop and maintain digital projects and initiatives
Provides resources, training, and consulting expertise to students and faculty interested in undertaking digital projects and scholarship
Makes available and preserves Oberlin Open Access publications, multimedia, data, and other works
Consults on digital accessibility, copyright and fair use, Open Educational Resources (OER), and Open Access publishing
Collaborates on research (particularly in the humanities) using digital methods
Advocates for and enhances scholarly communication
Digital Creation, Access, Preservation
Digital creation, digital access, and digital preservation are at the core of the 21st-century library. In addition to acquiring more and more electronic resources, academic libraries must find new ways to provide access to their physical collections. OCL DIGITAL is where analog materials get new life and where existing digital collections are described, maintained, and made accessible. It provides the equipment, the procedures, and the hands-on care of digital collections and exhibitions.
Operates the OCL DigiLAB
Monitors and maintains standards for digitization and web accessibility in use at OCL
Digitizes items selected for in-house reformatting, including oversized, fragile, and distinctive materials
Coordinates outsourced reformatting for collections where in-house digitization is not possible
Organizes and provides ease of access to digital assets through metadata
Collaborates with the College Archives and other departments on preservation of digital materials
Develops digital projects and exhibits of library materials
Digital Infrastructure
Quality digital collections are built on quality digital infrastructure. OCL DIGITAL provides the foundation for faculty, students, and staff to teach, learn, and create with digital materials. The systems used to host, provide access to, and preserve digital projects and collections require constant maintenance, regular customization, and access control. OCL DIGITAL keeps library systems operational and seeks new tools to aid our collaborators in their work.
Maintains and builds the institutional repository
Maintains and evolves the Libraries’ public website and users’ experience
Administers and customizes digital publishing platforms used in digital projects
Maintains preservation, records retention, and digital asset systems, including coordinating with consortial systems
Investigates new digital technologies and implements new platforms used in digital projects and scholarship
Coordinates with outside offices, such as campus IT, to implement library systems and ensure they remain accessible