• From the Associate Provost & University Librarian
• Our Strategy
• Accomodating Interests & Needs
• A Commitment to Digital Scholarship
• Improving Facilities & Services
• Engaging with our Community
• Focusing on Growth
• Financial Perspective

The Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship has begun a true transformation in its mission and physical space. The Freedman Center (previously known as the Samuel B. & Marian K. Freedman Digital Library, Language Learning and Multimedia Services Center) is the culmination of a ten-year vision for a center to provide faculty, students, staff and alumni with the ability to use both analog and hardcopy information sources in digital works and presentations, and is located in the heart of the Knowledge & Creativity Commons on KSL’s first floor.

Since the Freedman Center’s launch in 2005, much has happened in the world of new media and digital scholarship. In FY2012 we began to assess our successes, decide what is no longer necessary and where such programs need to go in the future to achieve strategic focus and balance. A new plan for the Freedman Center is now under development.

Recent changes were made to offer increased accessibility for all users. The Statistics and Geospatial Data Center was integrated into the Freedman Center and additional potential services were identified by an external visiting committee and in a concept paper. To date, we have secured donor financial commitment to begin the launch of new efforts and campus partnerships for delivery of services through the Freedman Center that are currently being explored.

Increasing Technology-Enabled Services

In addition to the changes with the Freedman Center, we have made important enhancements to the library in collaboration with our partners in University Information Technology Services (ITS). On KSL’s first floor, ITS installed the first visualization wall on campus. This large-scale, high definition video display measures about ten feet high by sixteen feet across, and enables researchers in a wide range of disciplines to solve problems that require creation, manipulation and envisioning of highly dense and complex images to identify patterns, singularities and detail that is not apparent from the raw data.

Potential ways to utilize the visualization wall as a research tool are endless. Examples include a historian visualizing a replication of battlefield conditions, an art historian displaying details across multiple works of art, a natural scientist rendering molecules, an ecologist modeling large-scale climate changes, or a biologist working on cell division.

ACR users take advantage of the telepresence capabilities to conference with others across the globe.

Another enhancement was our new Active Collaboration Room (ACR). Previously a traditional library classroom, Room 215 was transformed into a teaching, learning and meeting space complete with a telepresence facility. As individuals speak, three video cameras automatically find the speaker and pick up that person’s voice. The system provides a viewing screen and other tools for the joint development of rich content, including a large interactive digital whiteboard to document creation, annotation and sharing across the globe.

The capabilities of the ACR enrich the ability of KSL librarians to provide onsite instruction in a dynamic teaching and learning collaborative environment. The room is also available to faculty members to engage in teaching and professional meetings with global colleagues.

Freedman Fellows Program

The Freedman Fellows Program is a partnership with the College of Arts and Sciences and Kelvin Smith Library. This program aims to identify and support scholarly research of faculty at Case Western Reserve University. Awards are granted to faculty to sustain projects that are currently active, hold scholarly or instructional value, integrate the use of digital tools, and have clear project outcomes in support of digital scholarship.

The 2012 Freedman Fellows award winners and their corresponding projects are: