Development of Research Questions

• The DHi staff will hold an initial meeting with individual faculty members and their student and other collaborators (aka, the "research team") to determine the "big question" in their research project, what the intended deliverables are, and what other pieces are needed to maintain and move the project forward.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, students, DHi Co-Director for Research and Development.

Survey of Existing Sources

• With the assistance of on-campus data-mining experts (e.g. reference librarians, HILLgroup staff, DHi staff), the research team will survey existing sources - both traditional sources and newly developed sources of metadata ("data about data") - to better understand the materials available. While most faculty are well-versed using traditional search techniques for standard bibliographical reviews, few use metadata. Metadata is used to describe the context, content and structure of materials. Those materials might be books, photographs, archival records, audiotapes, or digital videos/animations. While metadata is flexible in that it can be tailored for a specific project and can often result in the discovery of previously unknown materials, the process generally requires the assistance of a trained technologist.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, students, librarians, HILLgroup & technologists.

Determination of how to use Identified Sources

• The DHi staff will reconvene with the research team to further hone the initial project idea, and assist the team understand how digital humanities could create new knowledge, provide access to newly-digitized collections, or develop new or enhanced methods of collaboration.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, students, DHi Co-Directors.

Understand Existing Tools or Create New Tools

• In the context of this proposal, "tools" refer to the technologies that enable scholars to work with or digitally manipulate objects or artifacts. At this point, DHi staff will assist the research team in understanding what tools already exist, so that the investigators may avoid replicating a project that is already completed or underway. The research team can then analyze how to use existing tools differently so that new knowledge is created, a new perspective is brought forward, or a new collaborative relationship with an existing digital scholar can be formed. The DHi Co-Directors will be in constant contact with large digital humanities centers to keep abreast of their projects and they will anticipate developing new relationships, based upon the digital humanities, with our peers in the liberal arts. The DHi Co-Director for Research and Development has been a MITH Fellow since 2006 and is currently exploring the development of formal collaborative relationships with MATRIX, Texas, and UCSD. In the event that tools do not already exist, the research team will work closely with the Programmer and the DHi Co-Director for IT & Development to create a new custom tool.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, students, DHi Co-Directors, Programmer

Identify Needed Training

• Faculty, as the lead of the research team, may need additional training to use the tools that are identified or developed. DHi staff will either provide the requisite training on an individual basis or will identify training opportunities for the faculty member to attend.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, DHi Co-Director for IT & Development, Programmer, HILLgroup

Expand the Research Question

• Once the research team has a better understanding of the tools available to them, the DHi staff will again meet with them to help "push" the research question further. That is, to determine how digital tools can further develop the initial inquiry.

Gather or Create New Objects & Add Them to the Tool

• Objects, in this case, refer to individual artifacts (e.g., a video or audio clip) that are used in tools. Again, for purposes of clarity, "tools" refer to the technologies that enable scholars to work with or digitally manipulate objects or artifacts. The research team will now be charged with gathering the desired objects or creating artifacts that do not exist by adding them to the tool.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, students, DHi Co-Director for IT & Development.

Develop Prototype

• The research team now enters the "proof of concept" phase where a scaled-down version of the final end product is determined to be viable and capable of meeting the scholarly goals of the team. These prototypes will be used to secure external grant funding so that the project may further evolve into a fully sustainable, collaborative, digitally-based scholarly project that also supports curricula.
• Personnel involved: faculty member, students, DHi Co-Directors, Programmer

Project Completion and Dissemination

• The research team completes their project and presents their results to the appropriate scholarly forums. The DHi steps back and plays a secondary role, only becoming involved if the research teams requests further assistance.
• Personnel involved: faculty, students

Integration into Curriculum & Development of New Research Questions

• In addition to including students in the research team, each project supported by the DHi is required to develop a course connection and/or have a potential course assignment following the research phase. With support from the HILLgroup, the faculty member will integrate digital materials into their teaching and begin to explore, with students, new research questions for the development of the next project.
• Personnel involved: faculty, students, HILLgroup