photo by Harlan Wallach
Cultural Heritage Initiatives:Opportunities for New Scholarshipand Teaching<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> furthered itsreputation as an academic leader in thedevelopment of digital archives and computerinterfaces, allowing scholars and students tostudy cultural heritage resources never beforeavailable. <strong>NUIT</strong> partnered with culturalheritage institutions in Africa, Europe,China, the United Kingdom, and the City ofChicago for advanced digital archive projects.<strong>NUIT</strong>’s Advanced Media Production Studio(NUAMPS) completed the Shuilu’an Templeproject in Xi’an, China by photographingand helping preserve this unique and historicBuddhist temple. Chinese research academiesextended the partnership with <strong>NUIT</strong> forfollow-up digitization projects in 2008and 2009.Digital video production of campus eventscontinued this year, and the majority werecaptured in high definition video (HDV).A customized <strong>Northwestern</strong> page withinGoogle Video was created in September <strong>2006</strong>to feature videos of cultural performancesand public lectures.Scholarly Communicationand Collaboration<strong>NUIT</strong> continued to enrich the scholarlyenvironment at <strong>Northwestern</strong> in fiscal year2007. Collaborating with faculty, <strong>NUIT</strong> iscreating specialized training, digital tools,and techniques that organize and utilizeinformation assets to improve instructionand research capabilities. To this end,several partnerships were pursued andothers were expanded:• WordHoard, an e-text analysisapplication that studies large bodiesof literary texts, was used in <strong>Northwestern</strong>courses this fiscal year, including classesin Shakespeare, Spencer, andMedieval Studies.• <strong>Northwestern</strong> continued to participatein the Digital Library Federation’sAquifer project, which develops standardsfor next-generation digital archives.• A one million dollar grant was receivedfrom the Andrew Mellon Foundation forelectronic text frameworks for theMetadata Offer New Knowledge (MONK)project. The multi-year effort joins literaryscholars from <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong>,the <strong>University</strong> of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the NationalCenter for SupercomputingApplications (NCSA), and fiveother <strong>University</strong> partners.Constructed a new specialized TiledDisplay Wall featuring high-resolutiondisplay and analysis technologies at theDearborn Conservatory, in partnershipwith the Physics and Astronomydepartment.Created a resource for student use inthe <strong>University</strong> Library <strong>Information</strong>Commons to analyze high resolutiondatasets with a new 2-panel TiledDisplay Wall and Teamspot collaborationsoftware.Equipped the <strong>NUIT</strong> Digitization Studioin the <strong>University</strong> Library with highresolutionimage-capture capabilitiesfor flat work and 3D objects, supportingspecial collections projects for the<strong>University</strong> Library and Chicago-areacultural partners.Increased Depot file service use by 48percent, from 66 <strong>Northwestern</strong> coursesin fiscal year <strong>2006</strong> to 98 courses in fiscalyear 2007.Presented 17 faculty workshops inthe 2EAST New Technology Series,designed to share information abouttechnology resources.Supported the Student ResponseSystem technology, or “clickers”, for 21faculty members’ use in classrooms. Thesystem was also adopted by the Officefor Research to assist in compliancetraining workshops.2007 Achievementsand ActivitiesFaculty and theEnvironmentfor Creative WorkAwarded multiple research grantsfrom the National Science Foundationand the Department of Energy to theInternational Center for AdvancedInternet Research (iCAIR) for design,development, and implementation ofnew services and technologies.Organized the Large Scale NetworkingCoordination Group invitationalworkshop for the White House Office ofScience and Technology’s Networkingand <strong>Information</strong> Technology Researchand Development (NITRD), focusing onnext-generation optical networkingtestbeds in Tokyo, Japan.Continued to design, develop,implement, and support the ITinfrastructure for the first NationalCenter for Learning and Teaching inNanoscale Science and Engineering(NCLT), funded by the National ScienceFoundation.Upgraded and renovated the Wieboldtvideoconference room in Chicago toprovide improved facilities for theChicago campus community.Led a Graduate School course, TG510,Teaching for Technology, to educatedgraduate students in teachingwith contemporary instructionaltechnologies.Continued participation in apartnership with the Japanese JNG IIinitiative, which is funding a $14.5million, 10 Gigabits-per-second circuitbetween Tokyo and the StarLightfacility in Chicago.<strong>NUIT</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 200711
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