In classes, seminars, and research projects, Davidson students are using, creating, contributing to, and adapting digital resources, methods, and tools.
Last winter, I mentioned that the library and Gale would be sponsoring a new prize to recognize undergraduate achievements in the broad field of digital studies. This new award, the Gale Digital Studies Prize, is the product of a partnership between the library and Gale, a part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries.
A committee of librarians, an instructional technologist, and a faculty member determined the eligibility requirements for the award and developed the criteria for evaluating entries. Because digital studies is an emerging field, we decided to accept entries in any medium and from any discipline. We are looking for creativity, originality, understanding of digital resources, tools, methods, and/or theories, and knowledge of the subject matter, issue, or topic explored in the students’ projects.
News of the prize generated a lot of interest, and we were pleased to receive numerous entries. We are now reviewing the submissions and expect to announce the winner(s) soon.
What will the winner(s) get? Well, Gale has generously given us $1,000 to distribute among the winning entries, and Gale staff will be on hand for a special awards ceremony on 15 April. In addition, we’ll feature winning entries on the library Web site, and we’ll also include the projects in the new institutional repository. In other words, a winner can expect fame, glory, long-term preservation of her/his work, and a nice check too.
We are excited to be able to recognize student accomplishments in this way. In my next blog post, I will share details about the winning entries. Be prepared to see some innovative work by Davidson’s finest!
