It’s week two of my new position at Georgia State University, and my head is still above water. Barely. You can check out my GSU profile here.
Aside from the usual headaches associated with lengthy cross-country relocation, I’m settling into the university and city, getting to know the community. In particular, I’ve spent time researching the researchers here at GSU, trying to find anyone whose work could be considered digital scholarship. I’m using a very broad definition of digital scholarship because inclusiveness is vital. Leaving anyone out is simply unnecessary and unwise.
One of my primary methods for this research uses Google advanced search tools to dig into faculty profiles, looking for keywords. Using the site: function, I point my search at a college or department website, and then search terms such as “digital” or “new media” or “online”. I add new terms as I check results, hoping to return even more results. Sometimes I have to remove terms because they are too frequently used on a department site (for instance, “GIS” is in the menu for Geosciences, so I can’t use that term effectively). Eventually, I end up looking at many faculty profiles to double-check whether their research touches digital topics.
I had hoped that my searches would also identify graduate students working in each department, but I found that most departments do not include their graduate student profiles on their websites (unlike GMU departments, which can provide a separate list like this). Because of this limitation, I’m also using customized Google searches to scan through the entire GSU website for some of the key terms, which works for terms like “digital humanities” but not so well for “online”.
Eventually, following up on the few dozen names I’ve identified will point me toward further possibilities. The library will likely also send emails out to departments to inform them about our digital scholarship support. But we all know how much email arrives each day.
On an entirely different note, thanks to my spouse and grandparents, my office theme so far is very classic. And the Cat loves our temp housing for its carpet.
