We are thrilled to announce some new members of the dh+lib Editorial Team:

Linsey Ford (University of Houston – Clear Lake), Ian Goodale (The University of Texas at Austin), and Pamella Lach (San Diego State University) have been named co-editors of the dh+lib Review.

Jason Mickel (Washington & Lee University) will be joining our team as Technical Editor.

dh+lib Contributing Editor Josh Honn (Northwestern University) will be assuming the new role of Outreach Editor. dh+lib Review editor Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara will now serve as Lead Editor of the Review.

Welcome, all!

A post on the University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries’ Blog announced the release of a collection of 14,000,000 tweets relating to the mass shooting that occurred at the 2017 Route 91 music festival. The post details the work of Thomas Padilla, Miranda Barrie, and other UNLV Libraries staff and describes some of the complexity of collecting, understanding, and making accessible a dataset of this nature and scale.

Use of the collection is technically challenging and a number of issues call for investigation that would benefit from the attention of researchers. On the technical side, all 14,108,104 tweets are stored in a single JSON file. For those unfamiliar with the JSON format, command line based programs, and scripting languages like Python there will be a learning curve for asking questions of the collection. On issues that call for further investigation, we have observed what appears to be collection infiltration by bots and other bad actors spreading fake news. Issues of this kind merit the specialized attention of researchers.

In a series of posts to follow, Miranda and Thomas will share stories, resources, and more for librarians, researchers, and members of the community. While the full dataset is only directly available for download at UNLV, public tweet identifiers and more information about the data can be found in the Collection Guide in the UNLV LIbraries Digital Collections.

dh+lib readers will be interested in the issues and sensitivities surrounding the practices of collecting, preserving, and providing access to such a dataset and should stay tuned for future posts in the series.

In a post at The Signal, Jesse A. Johnston (Library of Congress) reported on a Library Carpentry event held at the Library of Congress as a follow up to their 2017 Software Carpentry workshop.

The range of experiences, collections responsibilities, and technical know-how made for a lively learning environment, which was perfect for The Carpentries learner-focused approach. About 30 learners actively participated in the two-day workshop. Throughout, we focused on tools for researchers and digital stewards, using lessons and hands-on examples to explore various skills and topics, including regular expressions, metadata cleanup and manipulation with OpenRefine, and a day-long focused session on scripting skills for librarians. Everyone entered the workshop with basic computational experience, and the instructors placed a priority on creating a friendly environment to empower learners.

dh+lib readers considering their own local workshops will appreciate the links to curriculum and resources included in the post.

The latest issue of Code4Lib Journal includes an article by Chris Diaz (Northwestern University), entitled “Using Static Site Generators for Scholarly Publications and Open Educational Resources.” In it, Diaz considers the role static site generators may afford can play in libraries’ open publishing activities.

Static sites are cheap to host and require very few computing resources. In addition to domain name services, dynamic sites require an operating system to manage the web server, the database, and all server-side scripting, often with significant software dependencies that require regular monitoring and maintenance. Modern web browsers are reducing the need for server-side processing for rendering dynamic web content. Static sites simply require storage and a content delivery network (CDN) from hosting providers. The requirements for specific operating systems, databases, software dependencies, or server-side scripting for are minimal or nonexistent for hosting static sites. In some cases, static sites can be hosted for free or very cheaply (e.g. $6.00 US – $30.00 US per year) by providers like GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Static sites are generally smaller than dynamic sites. For one of our conference publications with over 30 presentations, the entire working directory is 230 MB (includes the full Git version history, Markdown, configuration, and Sass files) and the output directory is 61 MB (which includes only the HTML/ CSS files and PDF full-text content). For comparison, some hosting providers suggest 1 GB of space needed to run one WordPress site, more than 10 times the needed disk space to host a static website (Jackson 2018).

The article goes on to cover workflows for two static site generating approaches, Jekyll and Bookdown, and outlines the content, layout, and metadata concerns involved in each.

From the announcement:

The incumbent assists with the integration of digital and traditional library services through work on assigned projects involving digital reformatting and/or collecting original digital material.  Individually and in collaboration with IT and digital media experts, incumbent assists with program components that include design, implementation, and evaluation of projects, creation of digital images and post-processing functions, review of presentation of digital material, metadata and standards for content development, and models for information access and delivery. The incumbent liaises with various working groups throughout the Library involved in digital technologies and automated systems as they relate to digital reformatting and collecting original digital material.

From the announcement:

The Systems and Metadata Librarian/Specialist will play an oversight and leadership role with our library services platform (Alma). They will also be responsible for managing and continually improving the Libraries’ knowledgebase of metadata within that environment and applying their expertise in diagnosing, troubleshooting, and solving LSP-related issues (e.g., remediation, interoperability, metadata standards, etc.) as well as in extending and optimizing the LSP’s functionality.

The successful incumbent will collaboratively establish and communicate priorities and procedures, manage workflows, and seek ways to achieve efficiencies and improved interoperability among our products and services. The successful applicant will actively work across departmental lines in an environment where collaboration, integrity, customer service, creative problem solving, and collegiality are all highly valued.

This is a continuing status track (equivalent to tenure track), academic professional position. Depending on experience, candidates may be hired at either the Assistant or Associate rank, and as continuing-eligible or with continuing status. “Specialist” is a parallel title typically used by the Libraries for continuing status track individuals with advanced degrees outside of library/information science. Incumbents are members of the General Faculty of the University of Arizona and are entitled to all accompanying rights and privileges granted by the University and the Arizona Board of Regents. Retention and promotion are earned through achievement of a record of excellence in position effectiveness, scholarship, and service.

From the announcement:

As part of the Web Services team within the Digital Library and Scholarly Technologies (DLST) group, the incumbent will work collaboratively with the Libraries’ Communications team, with Research & Learning and Special Collections staff, as well as with other CUL and University stakeholders. The incumbent will support our existing web platforms, plan for and implement new web projects and designs, and help improve the Libraries’ overall web presence, which includes both user-facing and internal systems as well as vendor-provided systems The Web Services Librarian will bring an innovative, user-centered approach to all web projects.

Working collaboratively, this full-time librarian position will participate in website review, analysis, development, user testing, and assessment. Under the guidance of the Head of Web Services, the incumbent will help to improve workflows and procedures as they relate to web projects, participate in web project planning, provide training and support for Libraries’ systems, identify and test potential new platforms, analyze usage statistics and usability results, and provide statistics and other information to help with planning across our web presence.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work with the Libraries Web Content Editor to maintain and promote the Libraries’ web style guide and branding guidelines and other web contributor guidelines as needed; provides statistics and other information to help with assessment and planning; help plan and conduct usability tests.
• Assist, support, and empower web content contributors with new and revised web content; write user documentation; provide training support for users of the Libraries’ web content management systems; provide direct consulting and training to users in Web-related activities; help maintain user accounts.
• Provide statistics and other information to help with assessment and planning; help plan and conduct usability tests.
• Promote staff awareness of the Libraries web presence and of issues and technologies related to library initiatives and services; will monitor, identify, and consider innovations in the uses of information technology for the delivery of resources, services, and information.
• Communicate with contributors and the Libraries as a whole about usability and other assessment findings, best practices, accessibility needs and standards, and emerging technologies as well as industry standards and how these might be integrated into the current Libraries Web platforms and presence.
• Participate in project review, analysis, development, planning and assessment, working as a team member with Libraries staff, University partners, and external vendors.
• Monitor Libraries Website Help Desk and provide direct assistance and consulting to content contributors when help is needed with creating, maintaining, or troubleshooting their web contributions.
• Collaborate with appropriate Libraries staff on “legacy” content, and develop tooling and strategies to assist this effort.
• Provide advice, consulting and recommendations for user experience improvements to other units within CUL and campus-wide in areas related to web usability and web development.

dh+lib is looking for four new editors to join our editorial team:

Technical Editor
The Technical Editor will be responsible for maintaining the dh+lib website (which currently runs on WordPress and is hosted by ACRL) and working with ACRL to manage any problems that might arise. The person in this position would also take the lead assessing the current platform to ensure that it best meets our needs. Candidates should be able to commit 3-5 hours/week; have experience working with WordPress and WordPress plugins, ideally with PressForward; and have a strong interest in digital publishing.

Outreach Editor
The Outreach Editor will be responsible for maintaining relationships with professional organizations related to the mission of dh+lib, including the ACRL Digital Scholarship Section and the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations, and initiating new relationships that can help dh+lib reach out to new communities and help us grow. This editor would also have the opportunity to manage the dh+lib  Twitter account. Candidates should be able to commit 3-5 hours/week; be a member of an organization related to the mission of dh+lib (such as ACRL or ADHO); and have a strong interest in digital publishing.

As both of the above editorial positions are new, the people in these positions would help define their roles. Additionally, all members of the editorial team help with article submissions and would be involved with other content decisions.

Review Editor (2 positions)
Review editors take an active role in shaping the content that appears in the dh+lib Review, as well as contributing to strategic discussions about our workflows and future directions for the publication. Responsibilities of this role include working on rotation to either manage the week’s production effort (selecting items from nominated content, authoring/publishing posts) or provide editorial support suggestions on another editor’s week. Due to our editorial calendar, most of this activity takes place on Wednesday evenings/Thursday mornings, and Review editors often collaborate informally and have infrequent editorial meetings throughout each semester.

Each editorial appointment will be for a term of two years with options for renewal.

Candidates should submit a letter expressing their interest and their qualifications to dhandlib.acrl@gmail.com by November 7 for consideration.

Patrick Williams

Patrick Williams is Associate Librarian for Literature, Rhetoric, and Digital Humanities in the Syracuse University Libraries. He received his MSIS and PhD in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the editor of the poetry journal Really System.

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The latest from Archive Journal is a Special Issue on Digital Medieval Manuscript Cultures. In their introduction to the essays, Michael Hanrahan (Bates College) and Bridget Whearty (Binghamton University-SUNY) outline key questions and concerns present in the issue:

More than two decades into the ‘incunabula’ period of digitization, as digital manuscripts are regularly incorporated into research, teaching, and outreach, we must treat them with the same rigor that we apply to physical manuscripts and analyze their creation, reception, and reuse. Doing so is important not just for fostering a more rigorous and more just present and future for medieval studies; these emerging methodologies can be extended beyond the medieval period to enrich the ongoing study of text technologies more broadly. At the same time, taking digital manuscripts seriously requires us to consider questions that we would never need to ask of their physical medieval exemplars. Questions such as: What is the relationship between physical materials and their digital representations? What can we do with the digital manuscript that we cannot with the physical book? What do we lose when we work primarily, or even solely, with digital manuscripts? What are the ethics of digitized labor? Who are digitized manuscripts really for? Why do we digitize?

Our authors reach across disciplinary boundaries, traditional academic careers, and any perceived senior/junior faculty divides. They include leading critics of digitization, scholar-librarians who have been involved in groundbreaking digital projects for decades, early career professionals who have always lived in “the digital age,” and collaborative teams that bring together established scholars and practitioners with undergraduates and nonacademic volunteers.

The issue contains six articles, all of which will be of interest to those engaged in similar digitization projects or research endeavors relating to medieval manuscripts and beyond. They are:

• “The Digital Archive, Scholarly Enquiry, and the Study of Medieval English Manuscripts,” by A. S. G. Edwards
• “Why Do We Digitize? The Case for Slow Digitization,” by Andrew Prescott and Lorna Hughes
• “Digital Manuscripts as Sites of Touch: Using Social Media for ‘Hands-On’ Engagement with Medieval Manuscript Materiality,” by Johanna M. E. Green
• “Recovering Lost Texts: Rebuilding Lost Manuscripts,” by Julia Craig-McFeely
• “Remix the Medieval Manuscript: Experiments with Digital Infrastructure,” by Michelle R. Warren, Bay Lauris ByrneSim, Laura Braunstein, with collaborators (in alphabetical order): Monica Erives, Logan Henderson, Deborah Howe, Divya Kalidindi, Scott Millspaugh, Benjamin Patrick, Emily Ulrich, Qingyu Wang, and Jennifer Zhong
• “Julian of Norwich and the Digital,” by Elizabeth Robertson

HathiTrust has announced the extension of their non-consumptive research tools to copyrighted materials, expanding researchers ability to explore and data mine the complete 16.7-million-item HathiTrust corpus. From the announcement:

This work has been several years in the making. A primary goal of HathiTrust is to enable the widest possible lawful research and educational uses of the HathiTrust collection. In recent years, US courts have recognized the solid legal basis for non-consumptive research on copyrighted materials. In 2016, HathiTrust established a working group to develop the Non-Consumptive Use Research Policy to ensure the responsible research use of copyrighted items.

The policy is now enacted in an updated release of HTRC Analytics, which allows researchers to conduct computational text analysis on copyrighted items as permitted under US copyright law.

All users are now able to apply the HTRC Algorithms, Extracted Features Dataset, and HathiTrust+Bookworm tools to all copyrighted works, as well as those in the public domain. Member institutions can additionally make use of HTRC Data Capsule tools for the entire corpus.

In an Association for Research Libraries News item, Krista Cox (ARL) announced the release of the ARL’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation. From the announcement:

This Code was made by and for the software preservation community, with the help of legal and technical experts. The publication provides librarians, archivists, curators, and others who work to preserve software with a tool to guide their reasoning about when and how to employ fair use—the legal doctrine that allows many value-added uses of copyrighted materials—in the most common situations they currently face.

Libraries, archives, and museums hold thousands of software titles that are no longer in commercial distribution, but institutions lack explicit authorization from the copyright holders to preserve these titles or make them available. Memory institutions also hold a wealth of electronic files (texts, images, data, and more) that are inaccessible without this legacy software.

The Code includes sections with guidance on accessioning, stabilizing, evaluating and describing digital objects; documenting software in operation and making that documentation available; providing access to software for use in research; providing broader networked access to software maintained and shared across multiple collections or institutions; and persevering files expressed in source code and other human-readable formats. ARL will introduce the Code with “supporting webinars, workshops, online discussions, and educational materials later this year and in 2019.”