About
The Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS) partners with researchers and scholars to share new knowledge. Using innovative new media and digital technologies, CDRS empowers Columbia’s research community with the online tools and services necessary to make the most of scholarly communication, collaboration, data-sharing, and preservation.
CDRS is part of Columbia University Libraries/Information Services (CUL/IS).
Contact CDRS
For general inquiries, please email us at info [at] cdrs.columbia.edu.
Visit
CDRS is located on Columbia University’s Morningside Campus at:
201 Lehman Library
International Affairs Building
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
Mail Code: 3301
Walking directions to Lehman Library are available on the CUL/IS site.
Stay in touch online
Mission
CDRS has as its core mission (1) the facilitation of Columbia’s research and dissemination through the development and support of platforms and tools for advancing of research and scholarship; (2) research support that sustains ongoing academic conversations through distributed network communities, conferences, and structured user contributions; and (3) education about the rapid changes taking place within the scholarly communication process.
CDRS, led by Rebecca Kennison, is one of six entities that comprise the Digital Programs and Technology Services branch of CUL/IS. The Center was created in July 2007 to address the ongoing evolution of researchers’ and scholars’ needs as new technologies, policies, and systems of knowledge support arise.
Partnering with CDRS
Project Process
Our services for journals, monographs, and conferences can involve complex technical development and design support. For these projects, the CDRS team undertakes careful research and planning. Our process commonly involves seven steps:
Step 1: Researching Needs
Step 2: Proposing Solutions
Step 3: Planning Implementation
Step 4: Defining Elements
Step 5: Building Products
Step 6: Evaluating Results
Step 7: Launch
Learn more about each step in the Project Process handout (PDF).
Usability and User Experience
We work with our partners to develop projects that are usable and useful to all. Our in-house Usability Research team focuses on incorporating best practices of user-centered design—an approach that gives extensive attention to the needs, wants, and limitations of a product’s end users at each stage of the design process. In implementation, this approach includes surveys, interviews, user diaries, and comprehensive reviews of tools. Informed by these activities, the end product presents information and functionality in ways that are accessible to the widest possible range of users.
Research Impact and Preservation
We prioritize the impact and sustainability of Columbia’s scholarship and research. In addition to working with individual faculty, researchers, and departments to deposit research content into Columbia’s digital repository, Academic Commons, CDRS offers preservation of partners’ materials in the Commons as part of all our services.
Scholarly Communication Program
The Center’s Scholarly Communication Program produces resources and an annual speaker series exploring the rapidly changing scholarly communication environment, and best policies and practices for addressing these changes.
