MacMaster University’s Digital Brain Trust Hangs Out Shingle

McMaster is opening the information floodgates.

On Friday, the university will officially open the Lewis and Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship. The centre, made possible by a $2.5-million gift from the Shermans’ foundation, has the power to vastly change the way many students, faculty members and researchers at Mac gather and analyze information.

“The questions being asked and the topics of study are the same,” said Dale Askey, the centre’s administrative director. “But you’re applying computer technology to scale the research up and allow you to do more in the time you have.”

The freshly renovated centre stretches along the south side of Mills Memorial Library, in an area that used to house the university’s map room. It’s a modern and fluid space where scholars from a variety of faculties can come together to work, create — even just share ideas over a cup of coffee.