Humanities and Interdisciplinary Scholars’ Collaboratory Strategy and Planning Working Group

VISION
The University Library has an opportunity to build on the successes of our growing programs in the
Scholarly Commons and digital humanities by creating a hub for digitally-intensive scholarship,
collaboration and events where scholars can discover, create and share knowledge in a high-traffic
area on the 2nd floor of the Main Library (see figure).
Our vision is to create a digital scholarship “collaboratory” in 220 Library with inviting and flexible
spaces promoting disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary collaboration in the humanities, social
sciences, and related disciplines. The Library’s Scholarly Commons portfolio of programs will move
from the third floor to this space, and will form the foundation upon which the Library intends to build
new services and programs, in concert with other units in the Library and on campus. The focal point
of this collaboratory will be access to a network of experts from within the Library as well as partner
programs on campus, state-of-the-art tools and technologies, and collections that together create a
powerful environment for scholarship. This is an exciting opportunity to transform a prime location in
the emerging humanities “neighborhood” on the 2nd floor of the Main Library from backroom
operations into a destination for scholars. Essential elements of this vision include:
• Open spaces with flexible furniture that can be reconfigured for seminars, events, and
community gatherings as well as group study and collaboration. This lively, collaborative
atmosphere will complement the quiet, “alone-together” seating in the adjacent Reading Room
(200 Library);
• Access to research infrastructure, including technology enriched space and tools for faculty,
researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students to discover, create and share digital
scholarship;
• Individual and group research consultations with experts and an expansion of other Scholarly
Commons services, including research- and learning-focused programs and partnerships with
scholars, colleges, departments, and other units on campus.
This vision is inspired, in part, by directions suggested by recent campus interdisciplinary working
groups, as well as an evolving landscape of spaces and services across the Library, including:
• The call to create a “common campus space, physical and metaphysical, where we can regularly
encounter each other to generate and exchange creative, dynamic and innovative new
knowledge in ways that catalyze our diverse efforts” in the Report of the Interdisciplinary
Working Group of the Humanities
(http://research.illinois.edu/files/upload/humanities_report_final_2015.pdf). Specifically, the
University Library sees an opportunity to create a nexus for scholars to discover, create and
share knowledge in a central campus location long known as the “Laboratory of the
Humanities” that complements and extends the reach of IPRH’s event spaces in Levis Faculty
Center (including a robust videoconferencing connection between the Library and IPRH).

• The interdisciplinary, data-driven paradigm described in the final report of the Social and
Behavioral Sciences Interdisciplinary Working Group
(https://research.illinois.edu/sites/research.illinois.edu/files/upload/sbsiwg_-_final_report.pdf)
which proposes creating interdisciplinary research groups on topics like behavior change, the
impact of technology on society, and human sociogenomics, and establishing a research
incubator to support grants in these areas. Interdisciplinary social science research requires
library involvement above and beyond the support that researchers can generally expect from
the library affiliated with their departments and the University Library has the potential to
further develop its role as a nexus for interdisciplinary digital scholarship by further developing
the programs established in the Scholarly Commons.
• Existing Library and campus collaborations that focus on the integration of digital content and
expertise into research and learning in areas such as digital humanities, and the rich potential
for future synergies, for example, with the Campus Design Center. We see the potential to
transform the 220 space into a “hub” of expertise that is focused on supporting and furthering
interdisciplinary digital scholarship across a broad range of individual researchers and groups on
campus. A first step in that transformation is to re-situate the programs of the Scholarly
Commons in the 220 space, and develop a vision for further integrating those programs with
Library services and expertise in the humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary areas, as
well as related programs in the Library’s Offices of User Services and Research