Building a Transatlantic Digital Scholarship Skills Exchange for Research Libraries: Moving Forward - DLF CLIR Fellowships & Grants DLF Publications CLIR Global Join Give CLIR Programs Digital Library Federation DLF Forum Digital Library of the Middle East Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives Recordings at Risk Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research Leading Change Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Menu CLIR Programs Digital Library Federation DLF Forum Digital Library of the Middle East Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives Recordings at Risk Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research Leading Change Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Search Close About About DLF Our Staff Our Members Governance DLF Code of Conduct Events DLF Year-Round 2021 DLF Forum Past Forums DLF Forum News Social Events Checklist Resources DLF Organizers’ Toolkit Blog and News #DLFcontribute Series Digitizing Special Formats DLF Cost Calculator DLF Jobs Board Groups DLF Working Groups CLIR/DLF Affiliates DLF Membership Cohorts Get Involved with Groups Opportunities Grants and Fellowships Authenticity Project DLF Community Calendar Data Curation Postdocs Community/Capacity Awards Post a Job/Find a Job Contact Get in Touch Stay Connected Join DLF Our Members Benefits Menu About About DLF Our Staff Our Members Governance DLF Code of Conduct Events DLF Year-Round 2021 DLF Forum Past Forums DLF Forum News Social Events Checklist Resources DLF Organizers’ Toolkit Blog and News #DLFcontribute Series Digitizing Special Formats DLF Cost Calculator DLF Jobs Board Groups DLF Working Groups CLIR/DLF Affiliates DLF Membership Cohorts Get Involved with Groups Opportunities Grants and Fellowships Authenticity Project DLF Community Calendar Data Curation Postdocs Community/Capacity Awards Post a Job/Find a Job Contact Get in Touch Stay Connected Join DLF Our Members Benefits Search Close Home > Blog and News > Building a Transatlantic Digital Scholarship Skills Exchange for Research Libraries: Moving Forward Building a Transatlantic Digital Scholarship Skills Exchange for Research Libraries: Moving Forward Posted August 3, 2021 by Gayle in Collaborations, Community, News There may be an ocean between the US and the UK, but in the age of Zoom, collaboration can transcend geographical boundaries. Research Libraries UK’s Digital Scholarship Network (DSN) and CLIR’s Digital Library Federation’s Data and Digital Scholarship (DDS) working group are continuing to foster a partnership aimed at building transatlantic collaborations and connections. The two groups have had a series of conversations, and we have now hosted two joint meetings. At an April 2021 event, we divided into small groups to share ideas about the potential collaborative future of our two groups.  Then we conducted a follow-up Expressions of Interest survey in April-May 2021.  In response to the April event and the Expressions of Interest survey, we hosted a second event on 14 July 2021, at which we launched a beta Skills Exchange Directory, and we offered a series of tailored “skills conversations.”  This post provides more detail on the July event and plans for next steps in our transatlantic collaboration. July Event One of the main takeaways from the first event in April was that participants appreciated being able to meet colleagues both from the UK and US so we were keen to facilitate this again and started the July event with 121 or small group “meet and greets”. Participants enjoyed the serendipity of these meetings and individual connections have already been made.  The second part of the event was more structured and aimed to build on the information we had gathered from the Expressions of Interest survey. From this survey we were able to identify key areas of digital scholarship skills that colleagues were most keen to develop and could match these with colleagues who were willing to share their expertise in these areas by facilitating curated conversations. The areas identified were: Artificial Intelligence and machine learning  Tools for digital scholarship  Planning and managing a digital scholarship centre  Assessment and Metrics The success of these curated conversations was dependent on the experts being willing to share their knowledge and we are grateful to Carol Chiodo (Harvard Library), Alexandra Sarkozy (Wayne State University),  Sarah Melton (Boston College), Kirsty Lingstadt (University of Edinburgh), Eleonora Gandolfi (University of Southampton), Gavin Boyce (University of Sheffield) and Matt Philips (University of Southampton) for being so willing to participate and share their experiences so openly.  In these breakout sessions the experts talked about their services and how they developed skills for 10 mins each and then participants who had signed up for the session were able to ask follow up questions. DSN and DDS partners acted as moderators in each breakout session and we were impressed with how informative and interactive the sessions were. If you weren’t able to make it to the July event, each session documented the conversation in a shared notes document. These interactive sessions are core for the success of a skills exchange but the finale of this event was the launch of the Skills Directory – a dynamic resource through which colleagues from both groups can share their skills and expertise with one another.  Transatlantic Skills Directory Participants were introduced to the directory (designed by Stephanie Jesper and Susan Halfpenny at University of York) and shown how to search (via the Google sheets filter function) to identify colleagues with varying levels of expertise across 18 skills areas relating to digital scholarship activities within research libraries. The directory includes the names and contact details of colleagues who are willing to share their skills and expertise around a skills area, and the means through which they are willing to do so (e.g. one-on-one conversation, contributing to a training session etc). Due to the potential demand on colleagues the directory is only available to DSN and DDS members but a recording of the introduction to the directory from the session is available here.   The success of the Directory depends on colleagues signing up to share their skills and after the demonstration participants were given time to register their own skills – the group were impressed by the response. As we write this, 30 colleagues have registered in the directory, offering more than 175 skills between them. However, we still need more and encourage members of RLUK DSN and DLF DDS to register their skills. We need your expertise to make this a success! We also encourage members to make good use of the Directory to learn new skills or move forward with digital scholarship services and would be keen to hear of any contacts made via the directory. Next Steps These events and tools have helped us learn more about our colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic, and RLUK DSN and DLF DDS look forward to continuing this partnership. Please check out the shared meeting notes, resources, and other materials available on our Open Science Framework site. We plan to host more joint events to support networking and idea-generation, and we will continue to expand the directory with more colleagues who are interested in exchanging skills. Thanks to everyone involved in arranging these events and the directory and of course to everyone who participates in the skills exchange! Colleagues leading this work Beth Clark, Associate Director, Digital Scholarship & Innovation, London School of Economics, and RLUK DSN member. Sara Mannheimer, Associate Professor, Data Librarian, Montana State University, and DLF DDS co-convener. Jason Clark, Professor, Lead for Research Informatics, Montana State University, and DLF DDS co-convener. Susan Halfpenny, Head of Digital Scholarship & Innovation, University of York, and RLUK DSN member. Matt Greenhall, Deputy Executive Director, RLUK Thanks go to Gayle Schechter (Program Associate, CLIR/DLF), Louisa M. Kwasigroch (Director, Outreach and Engagement at CLIR and Interim DLF Senior Program Officer), Kirsty Lingstadt (Deputy Director, University of Edinburgh and RLUK DSN co-convener), Eleonora Gandolfi (Head of Digital Scholarship and Innovation, University of Southampton and RLUK DSN co-convener), Stephanie Jesper (Teaching & Learning Advisor, University of York), and Melanie Cheung (RLUK Executive Assistant). Did you enjoy this post? Please Share! Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn Share on pinterest Pinterest Share on reddit Reddit Related Posts Building a Transatlantic Digital Scholarship Skills Exchange for Research Libraries: Moving Forward August 3, 2021 There may be an ocean between the US and the UK, but in the age of Zoom, collaboration can transcend geographical boundaries. Research Libraries UK’s DLF Digest: August 2021 August 2, 2021 A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation.  This month’s news: The DLF Arabic Translations Available of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation August 2, 2021 The NDSA is pleased to announce that the 2019 Levels of Preservation documents have been translated into Arabic by our colleagues from Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation’s PrevPreviousDLF Digest: August 2021 CLIR+DLF 211 North Union Street Suite 100-PMB 1027 Alexandria, VA 22314 E: info@diglib.org About The Digital Library Federation is a network of member institutions and a robust community of practice — advancing research, learning, social justice, & the public good through the creative design and wise application of digital library technologies Stay In Touch​ Subscribe to the DLF-Announce listserv for all the latest in the #DLFvillage. Sign Up Follow Us Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Rss CLIR Unless otherwise indicated, content on this site is available for re-use under CC BY-SA 4.0 License Skip to content Open toolbar Accessibility Tools Increase Text Decrease Text Grayscale High Contrast Negative Contrast Light Background Links Underline Readable Font Reset