1. DIGITAL PARTNERSHIPS & STRATEGIES DEPARTMENT
Good afternoon!
Introductions.
The photo here is with two of our collaborators from the University of Puerto Rico, and they are sitting at the eastern-most point of the US in the US Virgin Islands. We start with this image because it shows a point, connection, and relationship that speaks to the manner in which we do digital scholarship and the value, which is always in collaboration.
DIGITAL PARTNERSHIPS & STRATEGIES DEPARTMENT

2. Digital Scholarship People Collections Collaborations Places
In a moment, we will deep dive into a specific example with Caribbean collections and collaborations.
First, we wanted to be clear that we’re focusing on one example to share the depth and breadth, and that even during the deep exploration of one area, there’s still too much to cover.
Digital scholarship relies on transformative collaboration where all involved are changed by the collaboration, and on radical transformation (grasping at the root; what is at the heart of your institution, it’s history), and thus it affects all areas. To understand, consider a constellation, with many stars together. Think of their relationship together in space with gravitational pulls, so all affect each other. Further, one star alone, while beautiful, normally does not illuminate the night sky and does not point the way forward. We’re often working from lines of flight and trajectories towards our destinations. We need multiple points of reference to plot our way forward. Also, as light is refracted and reflected, we can see that we all shine best when we shine together.
Places

3. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference […] is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Differences must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unthreatening. Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters.”
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider
When we talk about digital scholarship, we’re talking about transformative collaboration, and so we’re also talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion. This quote by Audre Lorde (poet, teacher, activist, librarian) speaks to the hard work and power of collaboration with DEI.
““Advocating the mere tolerance of difference […] is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Differences must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unthreatening. Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters.””
Cite: Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” pages Quote from page 111.
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4. We’re asking you to imagine and dream together because this is critically necessary work for digital scholarship, libraries, and our world.
Most of us are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which ends at self-actualization. Maslow developed the hierarchy when working with the Blackfoot nation, where self-actualization is at the bottom, and is followed by community actualization and cultural perpetuity.
Because digital scholarship demands collaboration, it offers the opportunity for leaders to connect and help move communities on to community actualization and cultural perpetuity.
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5. MUTUAL AID
In organization theory: voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid, as opposed to charity, does not connote moral superiority of the giver over the receiver.
The question becomes one of how to do this. Mutual aid is part of the answer.
When working with internal and external community members, the work is in true partnership, even when there are different resources and assets—everyone participates as equals, with differences again helping to change our perspectives and make us better through the relationship. Mutual aid is organization theory: voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid, as opposed to charity, does not connote moral superiority of the giver over the receiver.
“Based theories on mutual aid, those small groups are also discussed as a counter model to the historic concept of an autonomous individual. Those discussions emphasize an open model of voluntary cooperation in mutual-aid groups as opposed to induced cooperation.[2] Therefore, they raise questions regarding the tension of the individual's adaption and self-determination. In order to overcome this tension an insight in the life perspective of others, a radical openness to all situations possible and a high awareness of and confidence in the self is necessary. […] Mutual aid is also a cornerstone of the self-help movement, in which the helper/helpee principle is important: the idea is that the more a person helps, the more they are helped, and that those who help most are helped most.” (Wikipedia)
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6. Haitian Studies Digital Showcase in the Nygren Studio
Distributed Online Collaborative Course (DOCC)
So, how do we do it:
PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGIES, PROCESSES
Examples with classes.
Many technologies, including digital collections, digital tools. Often starting with Digital Partnerships and also with other collaborators in the Libraries and around campus.

7. Digital Partnerships & Strategies:
Scholarly Repository Librarian
Scholarly Communications Librarian
CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow
So, how do we do it:
PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGIES, PROCESSES
Examples with classes.
Many technologies, including digital collections, digital tools. Often starting with Digital Partnerships and also with other collaborators in the Libraries and around campus.

8. UF Digital Collections: www.ufdc.ufl.edu
Digital Partnerships & Strategies:
UF Digital Collections:
Digital Library of the Caribbean