Carl Grant
Dean (Interim)
University of Oklahoma
Tara Carlisle
Head, Digital Scholarship Lab
University of Oklahoma
DiSH (Digital Skills Hub) is a replicable initiative for universities, particularly university libraries, to teach students, staff and faculty, how to be far more “informed” users of technology in their scholarly and personal lives. Users of new and existing technologies need to learn the value that new technologies such as virtual reality, 3D printing, digital media, blockchain, algorithms and artificial intelligence bring to their lives and work, but they also need to learn about the issues that exist under those shiny value statements, which include issues of personal privacy, biases and health concerns. The library’s status as a “trusted” institution and the central hub on many campuses makes it uniquely positioned to connect the community-at-large with these types of sessions. At the University of Oklahoma (OU) we found that while the libraries taught digital literacy courses, there were many of these other types of sessions taught across the campus in the colleges, but only for the students of that college. As a result, the OU Libraries led an initiative to create an umbrella organization called the Digital Skills Hub, in collaboration with other units and colleges, in order make all of these sessions available to all students, staff and faculty. This session will cover how that was done, what initiatives were put into place to draw attendees, and the results seen so far.