Digital Scholarship Center Projects
Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center sets out to develop and curate innovative digital scholarship projects, educational resources, and collaborative programs to advance creativity, learning, research, scholarly communication, and teaching at Rowan University. One way we do this is by collaborating with faculty, staff, students, and the broader community to develop and curate unique digital scholarship projects and collections related to curriculum, regional history, or Rowan University-inspired research. The following is a list of projects and programs developed by the Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center.
Rowan University Arboretum
The Rowan University Arboretum is a collaborative project that will create a campus arboretum. The project explores the wonders of our environment by leveraging our campus trees as a resource for education, research, and University outreach. We also aspire to honor the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape people and their history.
Our mission is to curate an accessible living laboratory for students and visitors to explore the interconnectedness of plants, animals, people, and the environment to inspire new learning, research, and creative ideas. This mission stems from our belief that the best way to create meaningful change is through developing curiosity and empathy for our environment and each other.
Campbell Library Art Gallery
https://libguides.rowan.edu/DSC/campbell-art-gallery
In spring 2023, our team developed a new art gallery within Campbell Library to feature the creative works of faculty and staff hobbyists and Rowan University alumni. Depending on library renovations, we plan to have three exhibitions each year. The gallery will be used in courses to discuss topics related to curriculum, creativity, and lifelong learning. If you are a faculty or staff hobbyist or alumni interested in sharing your creative work with the Rowan community, please contact us at DSC@rowan.edu to explore exhibiting your creative work.
Broken Bottles student film
https://cineluci.com/rowandocfest-2022/
Broken Bottles was created as a student project in Professor Diana Nicolae’s documentary film course. Students Darien Brown, Annie Tzvetanova, Spencer Foti, and Ian Arena produced the film, which Darien Brown directed. The DSC worked with professors Jen Kitson, Erika Tsuchiya, and Amy Barraclough to write a College of Communication and Creative Arts Stori Fund grant to initiate a film on Southern New Jersey's rich glassmaking tradition. Dr. Kitson collaborated extensively with Dr. Nicolae and her students to make this film a reality.
Rowan University Public Art Project
The Rowan University Public Art Project is an interactive digital scholarship project for all public art on campus. The Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center developed the project in collaboration with University Publications, University Relations, University Planning, and the Rowan University Art Gallery. The project includes photography and descriptions of the campus public art, artist biographies, an interactive map, and Library resources related to the artwork, the artists, and public art. This project's goals included contributing to public awareness of Rowan University's commitment to creative endeavors, the arts, and the wider community and leveraging the University's public artwork to influence academic exploration of public art's interdisciplinary aspects and spaces. This work has inspired new course projects and writing assignments and has been used in numerous sessions of Art Appreciation, Art Criticism, Experiencing Art, Participatory Public Art, Urban Geography, and Cultural Geography courses. In spring 2020, we also worked to integrate the project into an Introduction to Aesthetics course. We envision the project being used in classes to explore creativity, critical thinking, environmental issues, gender and diversity studies, history, placemaking, and writing arts.
Watershed Stories Project
https://watershedstories.rowan.edu/
This New Jersey Council for the Humanities-funded project explores, studies, and shares place-based connections to water in New Jersey using public and digital humanities methods. Dr. Jen Kitson and Dr. Megan Bucknum Ferrigno in the Department of Geography, Planning, & Sustainability collaborated with the Digital Scholarship Center to build the final online project, which includes approximately 200 audio-oral histories collected at public workshops throughout New Jersey.
New Jersey Women's History Project
The New Jersey Women's History Project is an educational resource for students, teachers, and those interested in learning more about women's history in New Jersey. This project utilizes digital scholarship, historical research methods, and blended and experiential learning techniques to research, document, and curate New Jersey women's historical and cultural contributions. The original website was developed by the Alice Paul Institute, with financial assistance from a project grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission (a division of the Department of State) and through the Discover NJ History License Plate Fund for Heritage Tourism Grant Program of the New Jersey Historic Trust. During the spring of 2020, the Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center partnered with the Rowan University History Department to acquire the project for future development. In spring 2021, we are working with Dr. Janet Lindman and three interns to research and write new historical content for the project. If you want to collaborate on a course project, please contact us at DSC at Rowan dot edu.
Glassboro Summit Collection
https://glassborosummit.rowan.edu/
The Glassboro Summit Collection is a Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center project created in collaboration with the Archive and Special Collections, University Publications, and the Glassboro Historical Society. The project includes historical photographs, documents, and oral histories. Its focus is to provide students, historians, and community members online access to primary and secondary resources related to the Glassboro Summit, the 1967 Cold War-era meeting between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin. The collection also includes material related to Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), the Hollybush mansion, and Glassboro's local history. The project centralizes and digitally preserves the material for easy access. The collection is an educational resource for K-12 and college courses to inspire new scholarship, learning, and curriculum about the Cold War, diplomacy, the Glassboro Summit, and how the Summit impacted the local community and international politics.
Glassboro Memory Mapping Project
https://gmm.glassborohistory.org/
The Glassboro Memory Mapping Project (GMM) is a collaborative digital scholarship project exploring the cultural geography, memory, placemaking, and public history of Glassboro, New Jersey. The project is being developed through an innovative partnership between the Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center, Rowan University's Cultural Geography Honors Course (Jen Kitson, Ph.D.), the Glassboro Historical Society, and the Heritage Glass Museum. Utilizing digital scholarship, historical and cultural geography research methods, and blended and experiential learning techniques, the project digitizes, curates, and unifies endangered historical material on a publicly accessible digital archive.
The project includes historical photographs, video, audio recordings, documents, maps, oral histories, digitized books, and a comprehensive resource list. The project is integrated within Dr. Kitson's Cultural Geography Honors course, where the students explore Glassboro's cultural geography and public history and help research and develop content. Students must also develop an interactive web-based project using a cultural geography theme on a Glassboro topic.
Student research projects have included: Glassboro's German Prisoner of War Camp, Local Dining and Global Trends, Finding Faith in Glassboro, Making the Invisible Visible: A Queer Glassboro History, Influences of Agriculture, Segregation in Glassboro, Paper Money of the Glass Houses (Labor issues), The Landmark: The 200 Year History of The Franklin House, and several other projects. During the Fall 2019 semester, students developed interactive proposals for Imagined Murals within Glassboro. Students presented their proposals to the Creative Glassboro Commission, the City Council, and the Glassboro Historical Society members. One of these projects evolved into the student entrepreneurial business, GlassRoots, a finalist for the 2019 Idea Challenge.
The Glassboro Memory Mapping Project's development provides students with relevant, real-world experience, including fieldwork, research methods, writing, interview skills, critical and spatial thinking, creative and design thinking, GIS, metadata, handling archival material, and digital media development. The project also provides summer internship opportunities within the Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center.
The Glassboro Story by Robert D. Bole and Edward H. Walton
https://www.rowandsc.org/books/04/the-glassboro-story-1779-1964/index
Published in 1964, The Glassboro Story has since become an important historical source on the founding and subsequent development of Glassboro, NJ. In this digital format, the book is made publicly available as an educational resource to help students, researchers, and community members learn about the history of Glassboro, NJ. We also hope to spark a deeper connection with Glassboro and inspire new scholarship and learning within cultural geography, American Studies, United States History, and Public History.
The Projecting Future Public Art project
The Projecting Future Public Art project is a collaborative course project between Professor Jen Kitson (Urban Geography) and the Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center. The project was initiated within Professor Kitson's Urban Geography course and set out to provide students with an experiential learning opportunity to design and implement a research survey. This IRB-approved project allowed us to interview students and collect non-identifying demographics and student opinions of Rowan University's public art. The students also explored how projection mapping technology activates public space and encourages more dynamic survey responses. Over two semesters, students collected approximately 900 surveys and participated in four campus projection mapping events.
Summit at Hollybush by Robert D. Bole
https://rowandsc.org/books/05/summit-at-hollybush/index
Designed by Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center in collaboration with University Publications, University Media and Public Relations, and the Archive and Special Collections, this interactive story is a digital version of Robert D. Bole’s book Summit at Holly Bush, which was published in 1969 by the Glassboro State College Endowment Fund, Inc. The original hardbound book is available in the Rowan University Campbell Library. The project focuses on providing students, historians, and community members access to information related to the Glassboro Summit, including a collection of primary and secondary resources such as photographs, video, audio, and documents. It is intended as an educational resource to develop historical and cultural understanding and to inspire new scholarship and learning about the Cold War, diplomacy, the Glassboro Summit, and how the Summit impacted the local community.
Future projects:
Augmented Museum: Red Bank Battlefield Collection
