Inclusive Infrastructure: Digital Scholarship Centers and the Academic Library Liaison

A paradox exists in the building and managing of digital scholarship centers in academic libraries. While imagined as collaborative library spaces, such centers often remain “siloed” or isolated from the subject specialists who work with departments to build collections, assess critical needs, and collaborate with faculty and students. In this article, the authors argue that such a silo effect contributes to a sense of separation, skepticism, and even resentment toward digital scholarship initiatives. Silos also fail to utilize the full expertise of the academic research library. Interviewing the directors of 15 digital scholarship centers in libraries, the authors assess the current ecosystem of digital scholarship and make recommendations about how to renegotiate the relationship between such centers and liaison librarians to nurture a more inclusive infrastructure.