Digital Scholarship Team Awarded New A.I. Grant

The Digital Scholarship team has been awarded more than $11,000 from the Northern New York Libraries Network (NNYLN) to create an “A.I. Collaboration Space for Digital Storytelling” within ODY Library’s newly renovated Digital Scholarship Suite. The collaboration space is intended to provide students and faculty with access to emergent A.I-driven apps and digital equipment, with both experimentation and critique as primary goals.

In the NNYLN award letter, Executive Director Meg Backus noted, “We’re very eager to support an academic library responding so quickly and thoroughly to new campus learning goals and programs.”

The dedicated A.I. collaboration space includes two computer workstations where participants can immerse themselves in A.I.-supported digital production and exploration. Each station features an Apple M2 Mac Studio with 27” 5K Retina Studio Displays, access to Pro versions of A.I.-powered editing software such DaVinci Resolve and Descript, and other generative-A.I. platforms users can access in a collaborative, supported setting.

By locating the Collaboration Space within the existing Digital Scholarship Suite, the Digital Scholarship team hopes to be an integral part of supporting student and faculty engagement with emergent A.I. tools. St. Lawrence’s 10^th learning goal (“a capacity to examine critically the relationship between humans and technology”) has been a guiding force throughout the project’s planning and implementation.

As the team noted in its grant proposal, “This project will encourage synergistic collaboration that takes our students’ creativity to new heights, prepares students for careers in media production and related fields, and democratizes the benefits of A.I. technology across campus.”

The team goes on to say, “While we value and encourage experimentation with these new A.I. technologies, we also want to foster conversations with students and faculty about responsible use of these tools. Because the Library’s DS Studio receives direct instructional and technical support from the DS team, we plan to integrate critical reflection and dialogue in the generative-A.I. engagement process with our Digital Scholarship fellows, Digital Media and Film majors, and any other Studio users.”

Many students and faculty have been eager to learn more about how they can access and integrate use of these A.I. tools, and the Digital Scholarship team is excited to continue this journey with the St. Lawrence University campus community.