Amigos Fellowship Award to help UTA Libraries Create Digital Audio Experience Studio
Editor's note: this is the second of two articles spotlighting recipients of 2015 Amigos Fellowship and Opportunity Award funding. The first article appeared in the previous issue.
At the May 13 Amigos Member Business Meeting, the Amigos Board of Directors announced the recipients of its 2015 Amigos Fellowship and Opportunity Awards. Among those receiving funds was the University of Texas at Arlington for its project entitled "Innovation Beyond the Stacks: UT Arlington Libraries Delivers the Digital Audio Experience Studio."
In the school's application for funding, project members Katie Peery, First-Year Student Success Librarian, and Peace Williamson, Health Sciences Librarian, described the library's plan use the Fellowship funds to create the cross-disciplinary studio. The library intends it to be one of a number of experiential studios paired with an innovative new makerspace, an MIT-branded FabLab, all designed to facilitate access to bleeding-edge creative technologies. Currently, the UTA Libraries have 3D printers and scanners, Google Glass, Oculus Rift, vinyl and laser cutters, and other equipment geared toward STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) students. Peery and Williamson serve as interim FabLab co-managers.
With the Amigos Fellowship funding, development is moving ahead on the Digital Audio Experience Studio, which will provide all students access to performing arts technologies for recording and mixing music and audio performances. It will do so by creatinga cutting-edge learning environment that will enable UTA students to create, explore, and innovate and thus nurture and develop their potential.
The application noted that the vision for the UT Arlington Libraries makerspace is more ambitious and comprehensive than any current university makerspace in the United States. Project members posited that whereas many universities are merely installing a few 3D printers and calling that a makerspace, UTA's goal is to be truly impactful.
The Libraries felt the goals for the Digital Audio Experience Studio project "directly aligned" with the Amigos Opportunity Award's purpose, "to support innovation and development of new services," and the mission of Amigos Library Services, to "strengthen libraries as leaders in their communities" and "support libraries as education providers."
"This will be an innovative and creative new space for experiential learning. Initiatives like this will make a difference in students' lives, both on campus and after they graduate," said Rebecca Bichel, UTA's Dean of Libraries. "Our goal is to democratize access to specialized equipment, enabling students, faculty, and staff to engage in creative and interdisciplinary projects using technologies that are currently out of reach for most individuals."
In its application, the Libraries noted that the majority of UTA students have full- or part-time jobs and are members of underserved minority populations. More than 50% are first-generation college students striving to excel in the new data economy. The Libraries feel their FabLab bolsters that dream as a platform for project-based, hands-on STEAM learning by providing access to a creative hub with high-tech equipment, interdisciplinary collaboration, industry mentors, and inspirational spaces. Funding for the Digital Audio Experience Studio will allow UT Arlington and nearby Dallas-Fort Worth community members to gain and hone expertise in audio recording, editing, mixing, and publishing while also gaining a competitive advantage with professional, creative, and technological skills. The Libraries plan to offer UTA students free access to the makerspace and its equipment. Residents of the Dallas-Fort Worth area will be able to pay modest membership fees to use the facilities.
The need for such a project was clear to the Libraries. Higher education in the United States, the application stated, is at a crucial crossroads. Educators know they can no longer teach students everything they will need to know to enable them to succeed through the entirety of their professional lives. Currently, students have a seemingly infinite amount of information to master, and the way in which people work in a given profession is constantly evolving at a more and more rapid pace. Thus, educators must play the critical role of teaching students to be independent and hands-on learners who are willing to understand and learn from their mistakes—in short, to be lifelong learners. The Libraries' belief is that its Digital Audio Experience Studio will facilitate the development of lifelong learners through experimentation, innovation, creation, and invention. Whether they succeed or fail, they will come away with invaluable lessons.
"We are grateful to Amigos for providing us with the opportunity to build what we hope will be the first of several creative studios that will transform the student learning experience," said Peery. "The Digital Audio Experience Studio will add a completely new set of skills and competencies to our FabLab and will enable us to cater to a broad array of students across traditional disciplinary boundaries. We are excited to see the kinds of multimodal projects that this space will cultivate."