Category: dh+lib review

RESOURCE: Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship

Elijah Meeks (Digital Humanities Specialist, Stanford University Libraries) has shared notes from his presentation on the digital humanities to the Bay Area Teacher Development Collaborative, in which he makes a case for its importance at the high school level. The talk not only gives a useful introduction to key tools and projects in GIS, text analysis, and network analysis, but also raises some interesting points of intersection between librarianship and the digital humanities. Part of his discussion addresses the role of DH in improving information literacy:

When a student learns how to use a spatial or text or network analysis technique in a computer science course, they don’t dwell upon the ethical and social ramifications of its use. By bringing the digital into the humanities, we provide a space to question the effect of these pervasive techniques and tools on culture and society.

As librarians, do you use digital humanities methods, tools, or projects in your instruction sessions? Are there any information literacy instructors out there who incorporate DH into their curriculum?

 

RESOURCE: National Digital Stewardship Alliance Glossary

Checksum? Bagger? Ingest?

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance has released a glossary of digital stewardship terms.

NDSA members have been working on a “Levels of Digital Preservation” activity to provide basic digital preservation guidance on how an organization should prioritize its resource allocation. This glossary provides a common language for NDSA members to communicate about the levels work and should also be useful as a general digital stewardship glossary.

 

RESOURCE: Omeka 2.0 Released

There is a new version of Omeka – the free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. Updates in Omeka 2.0 include a revamped admin interface, improved search functionality for users, a simpler custom site navigation, and updates to many of the plugins.

RESOURCE: Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content

JISC and Ithaka S+R have released a report investigating how digital projects can thrive. “Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content” features case studies of three different types of cultural institutions in the UK that have been successful – University College London, the Imperial War Museums and the National Library of Wales.

The report also includes a sustainability health check tool and a series of action steps and questions for digital project leaders to help identify what tools or resources could help projects be even more successful.

This study is the first phase of a larger project, to be followed by “Sustaining Digital Content in Cultural Institutions,” funded by the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), and “Sustaining the Digital Humanities,” funded by the NEH.

 

RECOMMENDED: Digital Humanities in Libraries: New Models For Scholarly Engagement

In January, the Journal of Library Administration published a special issue devoted entirely to DH in libraries. Digital Humanities in Libraries: New Models for Scholarly Engagement features six articles that address both the theoretical and practical aspects of how libraries and librarians can engage in DH work. The issue was guest edited by Barbara Rockenbach, Director of the Humanities and History Libraries at Columbia University, who has been working to rejuvenate that institution’s Digital Humanities Center. [Our readers may recall that Ms. Rockenbach recently led a session at THATCamp Digital Humanities and Libraries focused on re-skilling librarians.]

Micah Vandegrift, Scholarly Communications Librarian at Florida State University and a co-author of one of the issue’s articles, has assembled links to the open access versions of the articles. He also describes his experience negotiating his contract with the publisher to allow such access.

With contributions from Chris Alen Sula, Jennifer Vinopal and Monica McCormick, Miriam Posner, Bethany Nowviskie, Micah Vandegrift and Steward Varner, and Ben Vershbow, this special issue is an important addition to the conversation about DH and libraries that we hope to develop here at dh+lib.

 

CFP: Digital Frontiers 2013

The University of North Texas Digital Scholarship Co-Operative invites proposals for Digital Frontiers 2013 (September 19-21), a conference that brings together the users and builders of digital resources for research and education. They seek submissions of individual papers, fully-constituted panels, birds-of-a-feather discussions, hands-on tutorials, or posters–all based on the use of digital archives, social media, and digital tools for humanities research. Deadline April 30, 2013.

POST: When is Open Source Software the Right Choice for Cultural Heritage Organizations?

POST: When is Open Source Software the Right Choice for Cultural Heritage Organizations? An Interview with Peter Murray
An interview by Trevor Owens of the Library of Congress with Peter Murray of LYRSASIS on FOSS4Lib. The two discuss how libraries can decide whether open source software the right solution, different types of open source software (OSS) available and the costs of using such software, the role of OSS in digital preservation, and the future of OSS in cultural heritage organizations.

CFParticipation: Global Outlook::Digital Humanities

CFParticipation: Global Outlook::Digital Humanities

Global Outlook::Digital Humanities is the first Special Interest Group of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO). GO::DH seeks to address barriers that hinder communication and collaboration among researchers and students of the digital arts, humanities, and cultural heritage sectors across and between high, mid, and low income economies.

The core activities of GO::DH are discovery, community-building, research, and advocacy. Its goal is to leverage the complementary strengths, interests, abilities, and experiences of participants through special projects and events, profile and publicity activity, and by encouraging collaboration among individuals, projects, and institutions.

Debates in the Digital Humanities

RESOURCE: Debates in the Digital Humanities

The open access version of the well-received book, Debates in the Digital Humanities, edited by Matthew K. Gold, Director of the CUNY Academic Commons. Features essays by DH scholars and practitioners in an innovative online platform on a variety of current conversations in the field. The website also announces plans to expand the online edition to include new essays – watch for a forthcoming CFP!