Digital Scholarship & Research Services: Home

Digital Scholarship & Research Services (DSRS) is a collaborative initiative of the University Libraries that aims to support and enhance the learning and research of the faculty, staff, and students at the University of South Dakota and the Wegner Health Sciences Library partner groups. We do this by offering consultations and workshops on digital scholarship and research tools, providing expertise on various elements of research and publication, such as data management and visualization, and by working with researchers throughout the entire research process. 

During the academic year 2022-2023, we focused on three things. First, we helped faculty, staff, and students adjust to the new NIH data management planning and sharing requirements, effective January 25, 2023. Second, we opened a new Virtual Reality Lab that is currently aimed at Health Sciences education and training. Lastly, we sought out new ways to introduce researchers to digital scholarship and research tools that could aid them in their research. 

This year (2023-2024), the staff at DSRS aims to increase our efforts by providing hands-on data visualization instruction, statistical support, and workshops that improve data literacy and the use of digital tools, such as Git, OpenRefine, SPSS, and Tableau. Additionally, we have increased our offerings in the VR Lab, making it more applicable to specific courses in the Health and Natural Sciences. We have also begun developing a Research Basics Series in collaboration with the USD Sanford School of Medicine to introduce incoming medical students to different research methodologies, important terminology, and the publication process.

What is digital scholarship?

Digital scholarship is a "general term that encompasses digital publishing, data visualization, the digital humanities, data science, and data analysis—all of which utilize digital collections, tools, and methods. Digital scholarship, broadly defined, uses digital content and tools to pursue research and interpretation with the goal of furthering knowledge. While this work can take many forms, one common strand is that it makes use of the powers of computing to do things that may not have been possible otherwise" (https://guides.loc.gov/digital-scholarship).