Since I started serving on our Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Committee, I have explored various digital platforms designed to showcase scholars’ research. However, there is always part of me that worries about the sustainability of the platform. What if this site goes down tomorrow? I have only recently begun to think about this topic but I think it’s worth discussing.  What options are available to researchers who store a lot of content on platforms like Scalar, Thinglink, Tableau or Omeka? This discussion group will raise questions about considerations of content/data storage for the long-term future.

I propose a session that frames the library as a junk shop. Inspired by the bricolage and pastiche skills cultivated by second-hand print cultures (zinesters, collagists, Dada), participants will subvert the library’s traditional role as a searchable repository by browsing the stacks for provocative visual rhetoric just as one might at their local thrift store. Participants will then reproduce their scavenged fodder, bringing them into their own compositions by using the copy/scan features of photocopiers found on every floor of the library.

Though I’ve used this activity with a unit on self-publishing (and will share this handout I’ve used), we might end this session by sharing our own compositions and discussing various ways we can reframe it in our own classes as a way to introduce students to multiple resources in our libraries, encourage visual composition, and to emphasize the role of serendipity and exploration in research.