In summer 2024, Milner Library surveyed faculty and graduate students about their awareness of Milner’s Digital Scholarship Lab (MLB 165), their perception of digital scholarship support at the University, their own digital scholarship needs, and the digital scholarship needs of their students. Feedback from 132 participants provides a glimpse into the digital scholarship needs of the Illinois State community. As Milner Library seeks to expand its digital scholarship offerings and support the evolving needs of research and teaching in our technological age, this feedback is invaluable; it is already being used to shape future programming.  

Notable takeaways from the survey include:  

1. Less than 15% of respondents were aware of the Digital Scholarship Lab. If this post is the first you have heard of the lab, we invite you to find out about our services on the relevant page of the Digital Scholarship Guide. We are currently booking spring semester events and would love to host your classes or programs. 

2. A strong majority of respondents indicated both that digital scholarship needs were necessary for their work (75%) and that they did not know which digital scholarship skills they need (80%), suggesting a disconnect between clear needs and the ability to identify and articulate appropriate tools and approaches. If you find yourself in this position, we invite you to chat with our graduate student assistants during lab hours or email the Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Sean Winslow smwinsl@IllinoisState.edu. We are here to support the digital scholarship goals of our campus community. 

3. There was little agreement on specific technology and software needs, but the most commonly identified needs were in Data Analysis and Data Visualization, followed by Python and R, programming languages which have special strengths in data analysis and visualization. We will be offering a variety of workshops on these subject in the future, starting with offerings on basic data cleaning and visualization this spring semester. 

Although we have an incomplete picture of what is needed by our campus community members, we are eager to improve our support and understanding. If you have digital scholarship needs, ideas, or questions, please feel free to come to the lab during open hours in order to discuss them with the graduate students who work there, or email the Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Sean Winslow smwinsl@IllinoisState.edu. We look forward to working with you.