Clare McKenzie and Kerry Ross (University of Wollongong) have shared a summary report and anonymized data for their 2017 study investigating the service and collaboration models within Australian and New Zealand academic libraries in support of digital humanities activities and projects at their institution. The authors’ analysis
does not show a strong formal commitment or engagement with DH activities in Australasian academic libraries. In spite of clear evidence that libraries are engaging in DH activities, no dedicated DH roles were identified in responses, suggesting that these activities are undertaken in addition to usual library staff responsibilities. Additionally, survey participants did not identify dedicated and ongoing library funding streams for DH projects with the majority of activities funded out of the general library budget or as part of grant funding secured by academics.
As the authors note, this appears to be consistent with the findings of the 2011 survey conducted at US academic research libraries as seen in SPEC Kit 326: Digital Humanities (Bryson, Posner, St. Pierre, and Varner).
dh+lib
This post was produced through a cooperation among Jolanda-Pieta van Arnhem, Andrew Craig, Anna Flak, Kristen Mapes, Laura Morreale, and Shilpa Rele (Editors-at-large for the week), Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara (Editor for the week), and Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Sarah Melton, Roxanne Shirazi, and Patrick Williams (dh+lib Review Editors).