{"id":18724,"date":"2025-08-19T15:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=18724"},"modified":"2025-08-20T17:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:33:11","slug":"rddc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/19\/rddc\/","title":{"rendered":"New Strategic Priorities and Transformation of Student Multimedia Design Center to Research Data and Design Commons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press has established three strategic priorities to guide its work in the coming years: <\/span><strong>enhancing research support<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by strengthening services, expertise and spaces to help students, faculty and researchers succeed; <\/span><strong>expanding experiential learning<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through hands-on, collaborative and immersive opportunities; and <\/span><strong>advancing open scholarship<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (including open educational resources) to promote equitable access to scholarly content and educational materials. These priorities are designed to support innovative scholarship, research, teaching and learning while responding to the evolving needs of the University community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As part of advancing these priorities, the lower level of Morris Library will transition from the Student Multimedia Design Center (SMDC) to the <\/span><strong>Research Data and Design Commons (RDDC)<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, creating a modern, integrated hub for research, data visualization and multimedia scholarship. The RDDC will primarily serve students and junior researchers while remaining a resource for researchers at all levels, enhancing the University\u2019s ability to support high-quality academic work across disciplines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThese strategic priorities and the launch of the RDDC are more than an update to space\u2014they represent a reimagining of how we support discovery and collaboration and contribute to academic innovation,\u201d said Trevor A. Dawes, Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums and May Morris University Librarian. \u201cThe Commons will equip students, faculty and researchers with the tools, expertise and environment they need to explore, experiment and succeed, combining our longstanding strengths in multimedia support with new, advanced data services.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key Features of the Research Data and Design Commons:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Research Data and Visualization Lab:<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Advanced computer workstations for data-driven analysis and visualization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Refreshed Studios:<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Multimedia creation spaces for podcasts, video and integrated data projects.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Streamlined Services<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Research-focused equipment lending, poster printing and project consultations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the transition is expected to be completed by Spring 2026, enhanced Research Data Services\u2014including data management, analysis and visualization\u2014will launch this fall. Room A (on the Lower Level of Morris Library) will temporarily close for a technology refresh in preparation for its conversion into the Data Analysis and Visualization Lab and Studio 2 will receive upgraded workstations and refreshed technology. Existing services such as printing, scanning, assistance with the microforms collection, gaming and viewing carrels, and scheduling the viewing room will transition to the Help Center on the first floor of Morris Library.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0By January 2026, equipment and service resources will be optimized and Studios 1 and 2 fully refreshed. In Spring 2026, the RDDC will officially open, offering a fully equipped, integrated space for research, data visualization and multimedia scholarship. Room A will reopen as the Data Analysis and Visualization Lab.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The creation of the RDDC reflects the Library, Museums and Press\u2019 commitment to providing innovative, user-centered spaces that foster discovery, creativity and scholarly success. For more information, please contact Daniel Peart, Head, Research Data and Design Commons, at dpeart@udel.edu or 302-831-0480 or visit <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/multimedia\/changes-coming-to-the-smdc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for updates.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press has established three strategic priorities to guide its work in the coming years: enhancing research support by strengthening services, expertise and spaces to help students, faculty and researchers succeed; expanding experiential learning &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":18726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-smdc"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 07:02:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18724"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18751,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18724\/revisions\/18751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}