Through his digital scholarship project “Close Beside the Winding Cedar,” Eric Tans, Science Coordinator and Environmental Sciences Librarian at MSU Libraries, has created a rich, multi-dimensional portrait of the river that flows through the history and campus of Michigan State University. Using ArcGIS StoryMaps, his project braids together interpretive maps, primary source materials, and narrative to investigate the complicated and at times conflicting attitudes toward the river. Eric’s project is the culmination of a sabbatical spent research the history of the river and his participation in the 2022-2023 Digital Scholarship Lab Incubator, a yearlong opportunity to receive an introduction to digital scholarship practices and join a cohort of practitioners working on their own projects.   In this conversation, we highlight the ways the Project Incubator guided the design of his project. Justin Wadland: When you describe your project to somebody who's never heard about it, what do you say? Eric Tans: I describe it as an online exhibit, similar to a library exhibit, that demonstrates the history of the Red Cedar River and its relationship to MSU over time. How did the project incubator help you with this project? Did you come in with the idea of creating this exhibit? How did it take shape? I initially had the idea of creating an online product for my sabbatical research project on the history of the Red Cedar River. The project incubator was instrumental in helping me select the most appropriate software for my idea and providing numerous examples of other projects that used similar software or ideas. It also provided a lot of feedback on how everything should be organized and what it should look like. Additionally, I appreciated the lecture-based workshops and background information about digital scholarship, which helped me better understand the discipline.   Initially, I was stuck on how to display the mapping element of my story map and wanted to have one map that showed everything. I talked to Kate Topham [Digital Humanities Archivist in the College of Arts and Letters and lead for the Incubator last year], and she showed me a bunch of examples of other projects using StoryMaps. They all had multiple maps that were much more focused in what they were trying to show. I realized that having one big messy map was just not going to set my project up for success, so I followed the lead of the other projects and broke things out. Once that happened, then the organization of the rest of the information fell into place. I spent some time recently reading through the whole project and looking at how you structured it. I like how it considers the river from all these different dimensions and then you have maps in that correspond to those dimensions. Absolutely, that information would have been lost if I had tried to cram it all into one map. It would have been overwhelmed with details and elements being stuffed on top of each other. What advice or lessons learned would you share with somebody who's working on a project like this? I would say be open to following where the project takes you. Don’t be too prescriptive about what software to use or what it will ultimately end up looking like because that often reveals itself as you become more familiar with the tools and figure out how you want to piece it all together. The process for me was gradual. When it comes to using the tools, if it's something you've never used before, just get in there and start playing around with it and start adding stuff. The first draft of my project looked pretty different than what it ultimately ended up looking like.   Also, always revisit and revise after you have something put together. Getting someone to proofread your writing before it reaches a larger audience can be very helpful. For more information:     View “Close Beside the Winding Cedar”     Article about project on MSU Libraries website

During Fall Semester, the Digital Scholarship Lab will be offering and hosting a lineup of events and trainings on digital scholarship, data, GIS, immersive visualization, and artificial intelligence for the MSU community. Some events are being delivered by DSL and others we are hosting in partnership with other folks on campus. All of these events appear in the MSU Libraries calendar, but we also wanted to provide a list to quickly scan. Some events require registration. Please click on the title for details. DSL Graduate Arts Fellowship at Main Library's Digital Scholarship Lab Artist Talk: Adeline Newmann - Immersive Art in the Digital Scholarship Lab 360 Room: Tuesday, September 12, 4-6pm Workshop: Step Into Your Sketchbook: Turning Accordion Books Into Immersive Art: Tuesday, September 19, 4-6pm DSL Project Incubator Info Sessions Digital Scholarship Lab Project Incubator Info Session (Hybrid): Thursday, September 14, 4-5pm & Monday, September 25, 12-1pm Open hours for emerging tech Open Virtual Reality, September 11 - December 8, Mondays: 9am-12pm; Fridays: 2-5pm Anatomage Open Office Hours: September 13 - November 29, Wednesdays: 2-3pm Data workshops “Do I really Need a Data Management Plan?” Introduction to Data Management Plans for Research Proposals: Wednesday, September 27, 10-11am Data Services available at MSU Libraries: Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 10-11am GIS (Offered by Maps Library; registration required) Introduction to QGIS: Make a color shaded map (online): Wednesday, September 13, 2023, 4-5:30pm Introduction to QGIS: Make a color shaded map (in person): Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 4-5:30pm Introduction to ArcGIS Online (online only): Wednesday, October 25, 4-5:30pm Midjourney AI Art Workshops (Offered by MSU Museum CoLab; registration required) Workshop 1: Introduction to Generative AI Art with Midjourney: Sunday, October 1, 1-3pm Workshop 2: Exploring Styles and Genres in Generative AI Art: Sunday, October 15, 1-3pm Workshop 3: Advanced Composition and Editing in Generative AI Art: Sunday, October 29, 1-3pm Workshop 4: Exploratory Prompts and Critiques in Generative AI Art: Sunday, November 12, 1-3pm

When the MSU Libraries launched its new website in August, the Digital Scholarship Lab website also got a makeover. Or more accurately, we migrated it from its original Wordpress site to the MSU Libraries website.  As we did this work over the summer, we wanted to improve the site for our user community. Building on the past work, we kept a lot of the same pages, structures, and navigation, but made a few tweaks that we hope will help you get more quickly to the DSL services and information that you'd like to connect with. Here's an overview of some of the changes: 1) Incorporation of tiles to high-use pages on homepage Working with the MSU Libraries User Experience (UX) Team, these buttons were added to the homepage, identified by the frequent requests that we have for these services. 2) Redesigned spaces page The DSL spaces are highly used, and one of our core services is responding to, managing, and consulting on our high-tech spaces. On the new spaces page, we have pathways that guide users to easily reserve group study rooms and learn more about high-tech spaces before reserving. 3) Consultation services and class support Consulting with faculty and students on the use of technologies is another highly used service, and we developed a consultation service page and separate page that offers suggestions and guidance on bringing classes to the DSL. 4) Easily accessible list of software on the DSL computers We frequently get questions about the software on the DSL computers. This version of the website has tile that provides quick access to an up-to-date list of specialized programs that we over on our 25 high-powered computers. 5) Incorporating news & events on our homepage One of the main benefits of rolling our website into the MSUL website is that the events happening in and being hosted by the DSL can be featured on our homepage. In addition, we can have news stories that highlight the excellent work happening in, around, and through the DSL. 6) It is the work of many hands The DSL Team met early in the summer to brainstorm changes we would like to see on the site. The MSU Libraries UX Team then supported us throughout the development process, while also migrating the entire MSU Libraries website. In spite of all they were juggling, the UX Team were very responsive as they designed the landing page, the tiles, site navigation, and other features. Without their assistance, it would have been impossible to migrate as quickly as we did. We also thank the College of Arts and Letters for hosting the DSL website since 2018 and providing administrative support. The new website builds on this past work. The website remains a work in progress and we intend to continue to improve it over the coming academic year, as we receive feedback from our user community. If you have any questions or comments about the website, feel free to contact us at DSLdesk[at]msu[dot]com.