Who will find this site useful?
This site will be most useful for a novice audience with a broad interest in Digital Scholarship, or a specific interest in completing a project using computing tools and interested in exploring available options.
The site could also be useful for people who are generating their own lists of tools for use by others, perhaps more specifically geared toward something like audio editing or podcasting. These users can use the search and navigation features, and then the 'export .csv' option to download a subset of relevant materials they can re-use for their own purposes.
You probably won’t find this site helpful if you are deeply steeped in one of the methodologies or practices.
Scope: Caveats and Disclaimers
This data has been curated by human beings, and so is fallible. It's also constantly evolving. This project was started because it was needed at UTSC Library, and the Digital Scholarship Unit is sharing it because it might be useful to others, and in hopes that others in the community may wish to collaborate. Use the site and its information at your own risk, and if you see a mistake, please report it to make the resource better.
The goal is not to advertise services, but to describe the basic functions of tools in plain language. There is a bias toward open, free, sustainable tools in keeping with the overall values of the library profession. Where possible, descriptions should support a critical approach to digital scholarship tools.
A link-checker in this site will scan all links every month and produce a report of any links that are broken for review. It is hoped this will help the dataset be more accurate and useful long-term.
What you will find
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Tools that help you do digital scholarship-y things.
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Things to help you educate yourself about digital scholarship as a field.
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Things to inspire you (hopefully).
What you will not find
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Nuanced discussions of the nature and differences between software.
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Extensive cataloguing of things like software libraries.
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A bunch of GitHub repositories that might do something useful in Digital Scholarship.
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Everything that might be relevant. (See: How to contribute)
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Non-English Records (sorry)
Contributing & Accessing Data
"I noticed something wrong"
Thanks, Eagle eye! Please use the feedback form located underneath each record to submit any corrections or suggestions for improvement.
"You're missing a great tool!"
Please make the dataset better! Please submit your tool to the database. It will be reviewed as soon as possible. Remember you can download the entire dataset at any time, including your great contributions (which will be credited on this page, below)
"Can I download this data in its entirety?"
Yes, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You can download the entire dataset, or any subset you have searched, using the CSV export option at the top of the page.
The taxonomies, as well as versions of the data are also stored in the UTSC Library Dataverse as part of Borealis: The Canadian Dataverse Repository.
Credits
This project has been picked up and put down multiple times since mid 2020. During the time of its evolution, multiple DSU emerging professionals and practicum students dedicated time and effort into the project as well as staff and librarians at the UTSC Library.
The UTSC Library would like to especially acknowledge the following contributors:
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Jenna Mlynaryk (Emerging Professional in Digital Scholarship 2020-21)
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Aron Tanner (Practicum Student)
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Caroline Butt (Practicum Student)
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Nathan Wolfe (Reference & Research Specialist)
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MaryAnn Vernon (User Services Loan Services Team Lead)
The Chat GPT tool was used to generate preliminary descriptions for much of the copy text for this site. Descriptions were then edited for consistency and accuracy.
The peppers icons used to indicate "complexity" were created by Lyhn from the Noun Project Chili by Lyhn from Noun Project.
The data for the project is currently curated by Kirsta Stapelfeldt, to whom you can direct any questions: (kirsta.stapelfeldt@utoronto.ca).