Category: dh+lib review

EVENT: Black Digital Humanities Symposium

The Black Digital Humanities Lab will host a Black Digital Humanities Symposium on April 12. The symposium “brings together graduate students, practitioners, community activists, and artists to discuss the future of this field, exploring what it means to come together to weave Black futures.” Sessions include panels on representation & resistance in digital media and Afrofuturist perspectives, roundtables on black geographies and changing landscapes, and a workshop on AI ethics in the digital humanities.

The Keynote Speaker will be Catherine Knight Steele, an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland who also directs the BlackCommunication and Technology Lab (BCaT) and the Digital Studies in Art & Humanities graduate certificate program for the university.

The event will be virtual, and admission is free with registration. An access link will be sent to those registered closer to the date.

RECOMMENDED: Empowering GLAM Institutions: The Launch of Digital Library Accessibility Policy and Practice Guidelines

The Digital Library Federation (DLF) recently published the Digital Library Accessibility Policy and Practice Guidelines, a “collaborative document provides guidance for GLAM institutions (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) to implement accessibility best practices through policies and workflows.”

From the announcement:

Some topics discussed and key takeaways include:

  • Policies should commit to accessibility, name standards like WCAG for each type of content, provide contact info, and define monitoring processes.
  • Procedures should cover ingestion, content types, software and tools used, who will perform accessibility tasks, and uphold applicable standards included in policies.
  • Get institutional buy-in by emphasizing the user benefits, increased usage, and legal requirements. Budget for staff time, tools, or vendor services.
  • Accessibility cannot be achieved in a silo, and is a shared responsibility. Distribute responsibility vertically and horizontally. Accessibility specialists should guide work, administrators supply resources, and all project participants have duties.
  • Integrate accessibility into all phases like planning, design, testing, and maintenance. Spread the cost throughout the lifecycle.
  • Follow standards like WCAG for web content, PDF/UA for documents, and include transcripts, captions, and descriptions with Audio/Visual content. Use inclusive language in metadata.

The guide was created by Calida Barboza, Rebecca Bayeck, Amy Drayer, Jacqueline Frank, Gabe Galson, Mary Hricko, Rachel Hu, Bonnie Russell, Lydia Tang, and Wendy Guerra. Additional support was provided by the DLF Policies and Workflows subgroup, the Digital Accessibility Working Group, and the extended community of accessibility enthusiasts who provided feedback and informed the group’s work.

PROJECT: Pockets of Information

Claudia Berger (Sarah Lawrence College/Pratt) and Gabriella Evergreen (Pratt) created Pockets of Information: Community Care in a Speculative New York, a StoryMap as a companion to an in-person exhibit. Project of Information “imagines how data could be shared in the aftermath of severe flooding and climate change in New York City. It is a garment-based resource map inspired by WWII bomber jackets, which were lined with maps to assist pilots in case their planes went down. Instead it is a chore coat, a garment associated with care and maintenance, with the map on the exterior of the jacket so others can view and benefit from the information.”

The StoryMap was created for Data Through Design 2024, “an annual exhibition celebrating tangible and multimedia expressions of New York City’s Open Data. It provides space for creative engagement with data and new perspectives and understanding of its role in our society.” This year’s exhibit centered around the theme of Aftermath:

We live in a perpetual state of aftermath. The data we collect today represent reverberations of past events; edited, interpreted, and distilled to tell a story of history. Data drives our narratives and shapes not only the future but also our vision of the future — a narrative of us and where we expect to be. Who is telling that story, and how does the aftermath of events shape how it’s told?

This year, we invited artists to explore how data reflects (and does not reflect) these lived aftermaths and to interpret the idea of aftermath through data. How does data define and organize time and space in our articulations about the world? How has the past molded our present and how will we sustain our future? Will we drown in a flood of information or make meaning from the mess…?

PROJECT: The Federal Community Art Center Initiative, 1935-1942

Sara Woodbury (William & Mary) created the StoryMap, “The Federal Community Art Center Initiative, 1935-1942: Mapping Art Access in the Great Depression.” From the introduction,

In 1935, the Federal Art Project (FAP) launched one of its most ambitious arts-sharing initiatives when it opened its first community art center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in cooperation between the FAP and local community groups, federal community art centers (CACs) introduced viewers to historical and contemporary art by sharing exhibitions, staff, and other resources on a national scale, with approximately one hundred centers opening in more than twenty states between 1935 and 1942, and around 15 million people experiencing their services [1]. Although less remembered today than the post office murals of the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) or the various workshops affiliated with the FAP, community art centers were no less ambitious in their scope [2].

This project represents a preliminary effort to map the FAP’s community art center initiative. It is also a place for readers interested in CACs to share their research, with the eventual goal of collecting all data under a singular project. All participants who share their data will be credited as researchers and collaborators in this initiative.

CFP: Survey on Digital Humanities/Digital Skills Workshops

The Implementing New Knowledge Environment (INKE) invites people who have taken part in a digital humanities or digital skills workshop in the last five years (2019-2023) as a learner, instructor, and/or organizer to participate in a survey about Digital Humanities/Digital Skills Workshops. From the survey instrument:

If you HAVE ATTENDED, TAUGHT, and/or ORGANIZED digital humanities/digital skills workshops, in person or online, between the years 2019-2023, we want to hear from you! We’ll ask you to provide feedback about your experiences, including benefits and/or challenges, and your opinions on these workshops, as well as your thoughts on future workshops.

If you have NOT ATTENDED, TAUGHT, or ORGANIZED workshops between 2019-2023 (or ever!), we still want to hear from you! We will ask you to provide feedback about factors that may have impacted your decisions not to participate in the past and about your thoughts on future workshops.

The survey should take no more than 20 minutes, depending on your responses and interests. This research has been approved by the ethics boards at the Universities of Ottawa, Guelph, and Victoria. This survey is supported by the Integrating New Knowledge Environments partnership (INKE.ca, PI Ray Siemens, University of Victoria) and The Canadian Certificate in Digital Humanities/Certificat canadien en Humanités Numériques (cc:DH/HN).

The survey is headed by Bridget Moynihan (University of Ottawa) in collaboration with Kelly Hughes (University of Guelph). The survey is supervised by Laura Estill (St. Francis Xavier University), Kim Martin (University of Guelph), Susan Brown (University of Guelph), and Constance Crompton (University of Ottawa). Questions for the research team can be directed to bmoyniha@uottawa.ca.

Definitions
We use the following terms in this survey:

  • Workshops: Training that occurs outside of specific degree or diploma programs. The workshops can take place online or in person. They can happen on campuses, in public libraries, at conferences, at dedicated institute events, or elsewhere. They can be as short as an hour or take place over multiple weeks.
  • Digital Humanities Workshops: Any workshop that was described by the organizers/instructors as a digital humanities workshop, whether it was teaching strictly technical skills or skills that support digital humanities work, such as project management.
  • Digital Skills Workshops: Workshops that are not labeled as digital humanities specifically, but teach digital skills and contribute to digital humanities practices.

CFP: DigiCAM25

The School of Advanced Study at the University of London seeks proposals for Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory, to be held April 2-4, 2025. From the call:

Digital research in the arts and humanities has traditionally focused on digitised objects and archives. However, born-digital cultural materials that originate and circulate across a range of formats and platforms are rapidly expanding and raising new opportunities and challenges for research, archiving and collecting communities. Collecting, accessing and sharing born-digital objects and data presents a range of complex technical, legal and ethical challenges that, if unaddressed, threaten the archival and research futures of these vital cultural materials and records of the 21st century. Moreover, the environments, contexts and formats through which born-digital records are mediated necessitate reconceptualising the materials and practices we associate with cultural heritage and memory.

Research and practitioner communities working with born-digital materials are growing and their interests are varied, from digital cultures and intangible cultural heritage to web archives, electronic literatures and social media. This international conference seeks to further an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral discussion on how the born-digital transforms what and how we research in the humanities.

We invite contributions from researchers and practitioners involved in any way in accessing or developing born-digital collections and archives, and interested in exploring the novel and transformative effects of born-digital cultural heritage. Areas of particular (but not exclusive) interest include:

  1. A broad range of born-digital objects and formats
  2. Theoretical, methodological and creative approaches to engaging with born-digital collections and archives
  3. Critical approaches to born-digital archiving, curation and preservation
  4. Access, training and frameworks for born-digital archiving and collecting

The deadline to submit a proposal is May 15, 2024. The conference, while planned as an in-person event, will have live streaming options to support virtual participation. A limited number of virtual presentations will be supported.

EVENT: Who Owns Black Data

The Black Beyond Data Ecosystem at Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University invites you to attend Who Owns Black Data: Slavery & Data hosted on March 29, 2024 in Baltimore, MD. This historic convening will gather a distinguished group of scholars, librarians, activists and archivists to discuss, elucidate, and provide public answers to the question: who owns and controls the Black historical and cultural record?

A public symposium from 9 am to 5 pm will feature a range of speakers and projects. A Keynote Conversation & Bombazo follows from 6pm to 9 pm, featuring a conversation led by Jennifer Morgan (New York University), Dorothy Berry (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) and Bilphena Yawhon (Archive Liberia), and a bomba workshop and bombazo hosted by Semilla Cultural.

All events are free and open to the public. Live streaming will be available (link TBA). Free tickets are available.

Per the event website, “Please abide by COVID protocols and enjoy our VIRTUAL experience if you are feeling ill or test negative! We will require masks be worn for the duration of all events; masks will be provided if you forget your own.”

The event is sponsored by the Black Beyond Data Ecosystem, the Diaspora Solidarities Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, Morgan State University, the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University, the JHU Center for Africana Studies, the JHU School of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities, the JHU Program in Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies (LACLxS), Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries and Museums, National Historic Publications and Records Commission, NoMüNoMü; African Diaspora Alliance, the New Generation Scholars/Muse360, and Black Femme Supremacy Film Fest.

 

EVENT: Supporting Text Analysis and Language Models in the Library

Constellate and the ACRL Digital Scholarship Section (DSS) Professional Development Committee, in collaboration with the DSS Numeric and Geospatial Data Services Discussion Group, the DSS Digital Humanities Discussion Group, and the DSS Digital Scholarship Center Discussion Group are pleased to host “Supporting Text Analysis and Language Models in the Library,” a 3-part virtual workshop series for librarians and archivists.

From the event page:

The first workshop will focus on how researchers are currently using text analysis, including the areas libraries can offer the best support. The second workshop will focus on how langugage models can be used for academic research. The third workshop topic will be decided by participant voting.

All sessions will be recorded and made available to registrants.

Session 1: What can we do with text analysis?
Date: April 1, 2024
Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm EDT
Duration: 90 mins

Session 2: Introduction to language modeling
Date: April 3, 2024
Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm EDT
Duration: 90 mins

Session 3: Choose your own adventure
Date: April 5, 2024
Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm EDT
Duration: 90 mins

These workshops are free, and registration is required.

 

JOB: Data Literacies Lead (Stony Brook University)

From the announcement:

Responsibilities & Requirements: We’re looking for a creative, forward-thinking, and enthusiastic person with a strong background in data analytics or related skills to join our dedicated team of Academic Engagement library faculty.  Reporting to the Head of Academic Engagement, the Data Literacies Lead is responsible for building a robust data literacies program with campus partners to meet the needs of evolving data science and AI-related learning and scholarship. The successful candidate will be expected to participate in faculty activities such as research and scholarship, faculty governance, and professional activities consistent with University standards for promotion and tenure.  Specific responsibilities will include the following:

  • Developing and leading the instruction of data and statistical analysis, tools, methods, data visualization, and data management at the Libraries. This includes integrating these concepts into courses, conducting workshops, and utilizing online platforms.
  • Utilizing in-depth knowledge of software and specialized tools crucial for data science and digital projects, including GIS, text analysis, data mining, and emerging technologies.
  • Supporting students and faculty on the use of data and digital technologies in their research and learning activities
  • Building effective assessments for data literacies
  • Incorporating best practices to promote critical thinking about data literacies, and responsible digital citizenship in a culturally sensitive and inclusive manner that respects diverse backgrounds and perspectives

JOB: Data Librarian (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

From the announcement:

UNLV University Libraries seeks nominations and applications for an innovative and collaborative tenure-track/tenured faculty member to serve as the Data Librarian.  Reporting to the Head, Scholarly Communication and Data Services (SCADS), the Data Librarian will develop and extend the library’s role in providing expertise on data management methods and standards, open science/research, and data literacy. The Data Librarian will work collaboratively and cross-organizationally to determine researcher needs and to deliver relevant services and expertise. The librarian will help the Libraries meet curricular and research needs by increasing the visibility of available data-related resources and expertise for undergraduate, graduate, and faculty researchers and by providing expert consulting, instruction, and other coordinated programming.  Key responsibilities and expectations for this position will include:

  • Facilitate and lead instructional programming related to research data management, data literacy, and open science/research including the design, development, and delivery of instruction through multiple formats to meet stakeholder needs (e.g., in-person, hybrid, synchronous and asynchronous online).
  • Advise and guide researchers on recommended data management practices throughout the research lifecycle that align with FAIR and CARE data principles, with an emphasis on making data open when possible.
  • Provide input and guidance to researchers in selecting appropriate data repositories to store and share their data.
  • Works collaboratively with SCADS, Libraries colleagues, and campus partners to develop programming and provide expertise and guidance on fulfilling federal mandates with a specific focus on data management and open data standards and practices.
  • Stays up to date on trends, developments, technologies, tools, resources, and changes in the landscape of federal research policies, open science/research, data management, and data literacy.  Adapts activities and recommendations accordingly.

This position may be eligible for a flexible work arrangement in accordance with the UNLV Flexible Work Policy and is evaluated on a case by case basis. 

RECOMMENDED: Preserving Geospatial Data: DPC Technology Watch Report

The Digital Preservation Coalition has made freely-available online Preserving Geospatial Data, written by Meagan A. Snow, Geospatial Data Visualization Librarian at the Geography & Map Division of the Library of Congress:

This report is designed as a resource for use by librarians, archivists, and digital preservation specialists who may be new to the realm of geospatial data but want a practical understanding of the geospatial data files they encounter in their collections. It may also be useful to geographers, cartographers, academics, and researchers who are increasingly involved in the preservation decisions around their own research data or mapping products. The report focuses on describing challenges specific to the preservation and management of geospatial data.