News

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Interdisciplinary Research and Informatics Scholarship (IRIS) Center is advancing its valuable work in a new location on the second floor of Peck Hall (room 2226).

The Center specializes in helping students, faculty and community partners with digital humanities and social sciences projects and initiatives. Its new space is double the size of its former home, providing a better platform for collaboration and allowing more people to access its resources and equipment.

“The IRIS Center is now hosting more collaborative projects, and groups are working comfortably simultaneously,” said IRIS Center Co-Director Jessica Despain, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English Language and Literature. “Additionally, we’ve been able to spread out our equipment to create a layout in which each workstation is specialized to certain types of digital scholarship.”

According to Despain, the IRIS Center offers a variety of formal and informal learning and teaching opportunities, and creates an environment in which students are invited to “tinker and try out new things without a fear of failing through activities or by providing research/project support outside of class.”

Software and equipment in the IRIS Center supports the digitization of books, photographs, documents, VHS tapes and audio cassette tapes. Documents can be made text searchable using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software, and Adobe Creative Suite is available for photo and video editing. Select portable equipment is also available via iris.siue.edu/resources.

IRIS Center Project Manager Katie Knowles and Technician Ben Ostermeier lead a variety of activities each semester, including workshops on various digital humanities tools and methods. The Center also hosts classes, and offers introductory sessions to the space and its mission. 

“In terms of scholarly activity,” added co-director Kristine Hildebrandt, PhD, associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, “we’ve developed an intake process in which we help students, staff and faculty consider the elements it takes to create a digital project. Our team helps them determine platforms, budgets and staffing, as well as how to identify potential collaborators. Additionally, we offer assistance with grant writing, and if written into the grant, IRIS staff provide tech support throughout the course of the project.”

The IRIS Center not only collaborates with individuals and groups on campus, but also with community partners. Recent partnerships have included the Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities, the Madison County Regional Office of Education, the Illinois Humanities Council, and a variety of local teachers and K-12 students.

Other features of the IRIS Center’s new location include a card reader that allows visitors to access the space after hours, as well as a digital monitor outside the Center that advertises the space, its offerings and associated projects.

IRIS Center office hours are from 9-10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Campus and general community members are invited to schedule a time to visit the IRIS Center’s new space and explore its resources. To learn more or schedule a tour, contact the IRIS Center at 618-650-2667 or visit iris.siue.edu.

Photos: The SIUE IRIS Center’s recent open house demonstrated the size and equipment layout of its new, expanded space.

IRIS Center Technician Ben Ostermeier uses the IRIS Center’s equipment to digitize a book.