On the Edge: Balancing Space and Services in a Digital Scholarship Program

Digital scholarship
Library spaces
Research services
Authors
Affiliation

Duke University

Liz Milewicz

Duke University

Brittany Wofford

Duke University

Published

September 22, 2022

Abstract

Duke University Libraries’ The Edge: The Ruppert Commons for Research + Technology + Collaboration was conceived as a space to support interdisciplinary, data-driven, and digitally reliant team-based research. This chapter considers what lessons pertain to the development of library spaces and programs in support of 21st-century research. As a space renovated in order to better serve research needs at Duke University and simultaneously articulate and promote the Libraries’ digital research services, The Edge offers a case study in flexibility – how to create space that can accommodate a range of uses and also evolve, strategically and responsively, to other campus programs and spaces and to researcher needs – and points to the continued importance of understanding and negotiating the role of innovative spaces and programs within established communities and cultures, practices and expectations.

Citation

@incollection{herndon2022edge,
  title={On the Edge: Balancing Space and Services in a Digital Scholarship Program},
  author={Herndon, Joel and Milewicz, Liz and Wofford, Brittany},
  booktitle={Designing Libraries for the 21st Century},
  editor={Hickerson, H. Thomas and Lippincott, Joan and Crema, Leonora},
  year={2022},
  publisher={Association of College and Research Libraries}
}