BOONE, N.C. — The Digital Scholarship and Initiatives (DSI) team in Appalachian State University Libraries has received the 2021 National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Organization Excellence Award, which recognizes organizations that provide significant support, guidance, advocacy or leadership for the digital preservation community.
“The team’s multiyear commitment to digital scholarship projects that focus on diverse regional perspectives has made a significant contribution to the community, region and the field of Appalachian studies,” NDSA wrote on its website.
NDSA is an international consortium of organizations committed to the long-term preservation of digital information. Former recipients of this award include the National Archives and Records Administration.
The seven members of Appalachian State University Libraries’ Digital Scholarship and Initiatives team in a Zoom meeting. Pictured, from left to right, top to bottom, are Adam Sheffield, Pam Mitchem, Ashlea Green, Jonathan Candalaria, Dea Rice, Agnes Gambill and Matt Ransom. Screenshot submitted
Preserving regional history
App State’s DSI team has a strong history of building and maintaining partnerships in the Appalachian region, including partnerships with communities that are underrepresented and less documented.
Through its preservation efforts, the team has provided the public with access to once-hidden collections about the area’s historical and underrepresented populations and cultures.
Examples of the team’s work:
In 2017, the team helped to preserve and share the history of the former Lincoln Heights Rosenwald School, a large K–12 school for African Americans in Wilkesboro. Open from 1924–68, the school educated and employed Black Southerners through the Jim Crow era and during the 20th century’s civil rights movement.
This project, funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, was led by App State’s Dr. Kristen Baldwin Deathridge, associate professor of history, and her students, as well as the Lincoln Heights Recreation Corporation.
The DSI team received grant funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2016 to digitize and provide open access to selected publications of the Appalachian Consortium Press (ACP). Founded in 1973 and housed at App State, ACP was the first publisher exclusively devoted to works on Appalachia, publishing scholarly books and reference materials — including the first contemporary and comprehensive bibliography of the region — along with oral histories, environmental studies and poetry.
DSI collaborated with App State’s Special Collections Research Center and The University of North Carolina Press, as well as authors and former consortium members, on the project.
DSI assisted in organizing and supervising the digitization and processing of images featured in the 2019 documentary “Dulatown” produced by App State’s Dr. Beth Davison, professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and co-director of University Documentary Film Services. The film focuses on the African American and white Dula relatives of the historic Dulatown, located in Lenoir, and how they come together around their shared genealogy.
DSI has provided digitization, web design and/or consulting for student projects:
Developed and led by Andrea Leonard ’17, a retired App State metadata librarian and an alumna of App State’s Appalachian studies program, the Katúah project resulted in a digital collection and an exhibit on the Katúah Journal, published from 1983 to 1993. The quarterly publication was operated by volunteers and focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia.
Most recently, DSI assisted anthropology alumna Cameron Blumhardt ’21 with her project “The Garden Creek Virtual Exhibit,” which showcases the history of the Garden Creek archaeological site located in Haywood County and within the recognized territory of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The exhibit explores past site excavations and highlights the use of geophysical techniques of ethical field archeology to minimize the physical impact on archeological sites.
About App State’s DSI team
DSI team members work to enhance student learning and encourage faculty research by providing access to, and information about, new methods of digital scholarship and lending support in the areas of copyright, fair use and intellectual property.
Additionally, DSI provides and sustains innovative digital tools and publishing platforms for content delivery, discovery, analysis, data curation and preservation.
For more information on App State’s DSI team and its projects/work, visit https://library.appstate.edu/dsi.
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About University Libraries
University Libraries at Appalachian State University serves the students, faculty and staff of App State’s Boone and Hickory campuses, contributing to the university’s mission of learning, teaching, advancing knowledge, engagement and effectiveness. Belk Library and Information Commons, the Erneston Music Library and the Hickory Library and Information Commons provide academic resources for all App State students and faculty. Within Belk Library, students and faculty find group and quiet study spaces, digital devices to check out, the Digital Media Studio, the Makerspace, the Virtual Realty Studio, the Special Collections Research Center and more. Learn more at https://library.appstate.edu.
About Appalachian State University
As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.
