Over the course of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years, DRS recruited a Digital Cultural Heritage Intern whose job was to research the ways libraries contributed to interactive scholarly outputs that utilized 3D technology. As part of this work, exploration by the intern led to several pilot outputs. The first of these is a bibliography of scholarly works (focusing on archaeology for now) that utilize 3D models or some form of interactive experience to strengthen or make a particular scholarly argument. This bibliography—which will soon be published on DRS’s new CreateFSU service as pilot project site—contains a handful of digital monographs, websites, and traditional scholarly outputs with digital supplements that engage with 3D models in some way. The bibliography is also annotated to convey to future DRS partners the ways in which this interactivity can supplement a traditional scholarly work, and how the various 3D or interactive technologies are used. A draft version of the bibliography is viewable in a shared Zotero library.
The Digital Cultural Heritage Intern also assisted the Digital Scholarship Librarian to explore 3D scanning and photogrammetry workflows (before pandemic-related closures) to investigate how DRS could partner on various scanning projects. FSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives and the FSU Anthropology Department were two initial partners, and pilot project outputs include a ceramic penguin from a 1950’s Antarctic research expedition, held in Special Collections and a scan of a stone from the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
DRS looks forward to further exploring opportunities for 3D scanning and modelling with the support of the new Graduate Assistant, all in support of the new Immersive Scholarship Strategic Initiative.