Introduction to CDIL

The Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning (CD?L) is the University of Idaho Library’s digital humanities and digital scholarship center.

But what is Digital Humanities??

We’re not always sure, but something like: DH is using new digital methods and tools to pursue humanities research questions.

Digital Scholarship is another commonly used ambiguous term–for us it usually means using the unique possibilities of digital platforms to enable new forms of communication and publication. This is often extended further with the concepts of public humanities or public history, where we rethink audiences for our research and expand access to information.

We do that sort of stuff!

CollectionBuilder

CollectionBuilder is an open source tool for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that are driven by metadata and powered by modern static web technology–developed right here by CDIL! We use CollectionBuilder to create our digital collections, teach in classes, and collaborate with researchers.

The Mining the Archives project site is created using CollectionBuilder-Sheets, a new template we are developing. In this case librarians set up the exhibit template and website, framing the classroom learning around digitization, curation, and metadata.

Example CDIL Projects

To get a better idea of what CollectionBuilder does, and what digital scholarship can be, explore some of these CDIL projects:

• Letters of Mancini – Sarah Nelson (Modern Languages & Cultures) and Olivia Wikle (Library) – editing, translating, and publishing 17th century letters.
• Storying Extinction – Jack Kredell, Chris Lamb (English), and Devin Becker (Library) – multidisciplinary, “deep map” documenting the extinction of North Idaho’s Caribou population.
• Historical Japanese Comparative Ceramics Collection (HJCCC) – Renae Campbell (Culture, Society and Justice) and Evan Williamson (Library) – digital collection publishing research in historical archeology, making it easier to access and visualize.
• Black History at the University of Idaho – Sydney Freeman Jr. (Leadership and Counseling) and Devin Becker (Library) – curated digital collection and essays that reveal under-documented stories of achievements of black students at U of I.