The Digital Scholarship Lab is located on the ground floor of Hillman Library (room G30, just past the main service desk). This Lab provides access to high-powered workstations equipped with specialized software for digital projects. Students and faculty working on digital projects are welcome to stop by the Lab for individual or collaborative work anytime Hillman Library is open. Workstations are available on a first-come, first-served basis and open for use whenever there are no events taking place in the Lab.
Available Software
Digital Scholarship Lab computers have over thirty software titles available, including applications for 3D modeling, data analysis, video editing and more.
Computer and Software Access:
Lab computers require users to log in using their Pitt Passport credentials. Non-Pitt visitors must obtain a temporary ID at the Hillman service desk to access the computer workstations. Some software (such as Adobe Creative Cloud and ArcGIS Pro) also requires users to sign in using their Pitt Passport login.
List of Lab software:
Data Cleaning, Analysis, and Visualization Tools
- Cytoscape (network analysis and visualization software)
- DB Browser (visual tool for working with SQLite or SQLCipher database files)
- Fiji (scientific image analysis package)
- Gephi (network analysis and visualization software)
- git Bash and GitHub Desktop (version control tools for tracking changes to data and code)
- MALLET (Java-based toolkit for applying machine learning to text, including tasks like topic modeling, classification, clustering, and information extraction)
- NVivo (qualitative data analysis software)
- OpenRefine (software for cleaning and transforming tabular data)
- Processing (software for computational visual design and learning how to code)
- Protégé (ontology creation and editing software)
- PuTTY (SSH client)
- Python, Anaconda, and PyCharm for Education (programming language and environments for learning and teaching Python)
- QualCoder (qualitative data analysis software)
- R + RStudio (programming language and environment for statistical computing and data visualization)
- Tableau Public (visual data analytics platform)
Digital Creation Tools
- Adobe Creative Cloud (tools for image editing and graphic design, including After Effects, Audition, Bridge, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere Pro)
- Audacity (audio editor)
- Blender (3D creation suite for cleaning up 3D scans and creating 3D models)
- DaVinci Resolve (professional editing, color, visual effects, and postproduction software)
- MeshLab (software for editing 3D meshes)
- MeshMixer (software for cleaning up 3D scans and 3D print preparation)
- Panopto (video recording and editing platform for teaching)
- Sculptris (digital sculpting tool for creating 3D models)
- Unity (development platform for creating video games, animations, virtual reality, and augmented reality content)
Mapping and Geographic Information System (GIS) Tools
- ArcGIS Pro (industry-standard GIS mapping and analysis software)
- Google Earth Pro (global digital interactive map with some visualization and analysis capabilities)
- QGIS (open-source GIS mapping and analysis tool)
Other Software
Workshops in the Lab
The Digital Scholarship & Publishing team offers regular public workshops on a variety of topics, including specialized software and digital research methods. The Lab is unavailable for individual use during public workshops. View all upcoming Digital Scholarship & Publishing workshops and events.
Other Software
In addition to the software installed on Digital Scholarship Lab computers, Pitt researchers may access a variety of software and online applications through Pitt Digital’s Software Distribution Services. Read more about available software for Pitt faculty and software for Pitt students.
Below are a few of the most frequently used online platforms for digital research available to Pitt faculty, staff, and/or students. Except where noted, these tools are available to all Pitt affiliates.
- ArcGIS Online (online mapping platform)
- ArcGIS StoryMaps (online publishing platform)
- BioRender (online app for creating scientific diagrams and illustrations) – available at no cost to Pitt students and at a discounted cost to Pitt faculty and staff
- DMPTool (online platform for writing data management and sharing plans)
- Overleaf (online platform for LaTeX authoring and collaboration for scientific writing)
- Qualtrics (online survey and data collection platform)
- Social Explorer (online interactive map and demographic data explorer)
The Digital Scholarship & Publishing team also frequently teaches with the following online platforms:
- Omeka (digital exhibit platform)
- GitHub and GitHub Pages (online collaborative developer platform and publishing tool)
- Scalar (online multimedia-rich publishing platform)
- TinkerCAD (online app for 3D design)
- Voyant Tools (online app for simple quantitative text mining and analysis)
- WordPress (online publishing platform)
Need Help?
If you experience a technical issue with one of the Lab workstations or have a question about the software installed on Lab computers, please send us a message at library.pitt.edu/ask-us!
The Digital Scholarship & Publishing team offers individual and small-group consultations on research software and computational research methods related to our service areas, including data analysis and visualization, digital publishing platforms, digital creation, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Contact us to make an appointment!
