Attending the Association of Computers and the Humanities conference and interested in the role of librarians, technologists, archivists, and other information professionals within the wide world of digital humanities? Join dh+lib for an informal gathering on July 24 at 7:00 pm at the Biergarten at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco, 620 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

dh+lib Editor-in-Chief Sarah Melton will be there as a meetup organizer, but we’re counting on you to bring the conversation, merriment, and community!

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!

In a recent article in Cultural Anthropology, Marcel LaFlamme (University of Washington) and Dominic Boyer (Rice University) argue that open access publishing has the potential to facilitate a more revolutionary anthropology, despite the discipline’s reluctance to embrace the movement:

Yet the open-access movement has never really caught fire in anthropology beyond a fervent corps of true believers. Why, we wonder, might that be so? People, of course, are busy, and the intricacies of different publishing models are enough to deter anyone save the most bloody-minded. Beyond that, though, we speculate that, for many, open access seems to be a technical problem rather than a basis for political mobilization. From the perspective of those thirsting for radical change in the academy and beyond, there is surely something a bit precious about the open-access movement’s preoccupation with how articles get downloaded. So, for those of us who do see a more broadly revolutionary potential in open-access initiatives, it’s up to us to make the case for how it could be unlocked.

As the fiery reckonings of #HAUtalk have insisted (e.g., Mahi Tahi 2018; Todd 2018; West 2018), the open-access movement in anthropology needs to open itself more fully to decolonizing, antiracist, and feminist currents within the discipline. We are writing in this spirit, in the hope that open access can serve as an accelerant for more radical kinds of social change (and in recognition of all that open-access advocates can learn from those who are already bringing such change about). Thus, rather than foregrounding liberal formulations of freedom and property on which discussions of open access so often rely, we propose to approach open access as a kind of “revolutionary infrastructure” (Boyer 2017) that redirects energies presently locked into the status quo toward fissures of breakthrough and transformation.

The authors offer some suggestions to would-be journal editors (including working with library-based presses) and exhort senior faculty to become open access advocates. They conclude by asking that faculty consider withholding their labor from paywalled publications.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) invites comments on a draft white paper on the potential uses of Wikidata as a linked open data (LOD) repository for library data. In addition to Wikidata’s function as a possible repository, the white paper task force notes that “a significant use case driving the formation of the task force was a mutual interest between libraries and the Wikimedia community in creating culturally competent descriptive metadata, in collaboration with communities whose lives, collections, and relationships are being described.”

Comments will be accepted until November 30, 2018. Reviewers can comment directly on the paper or by email to Judy Ruttenberg (judy@arl.org).

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is accepting proposals for the Library Publishing Forum in Vancouver, BC, from May 8–10, 2019. In addition to presentations, sessions may include other formats such as workshops, working sessions, roundtables, and panel discussions. Forum organizers encourage:

• Proposals that consider and promote discussions of diversity and inclusion;
• Case studies that highlight new initiatives, partnerships, or research;
• Sessions that focus on professional development and shared best practices
• Sessions that envision the library publishing community working together (or joining forces with others) to tackle challenges at scale;
• Sessions exploring the role of library publishing in the bigger context of scholarly communication

Proposals are due November 30, 2018.

The Callidus project invites applications for the Digital Approaches to Teaching Historical Languages (DAtTeL) workshop scheduled for March 28–29 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The organizers

welcome contributions that deal with any aspect of computer-assisted language learning for historical languages and the specific affordances of blended learning in this area. We want to especially encourage submissions that make use of historical corpora.

Authors should submit two-page abstracts to dattel2019@lists.hu-berlin.de. Proposals are due December 9, 2018.

The Right2Left Organising Committee is soliciting proposals for a half-day workshop on June 8, 2019, at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute. The workshop will focus on digital work in languages written from right to left (RTL), and topics may include:

• multi-directional texts
• digital methods and RTL scripts
• RTL workarounds
• pre-Unicode histories of RTL digital environments
• LTR transliteration/approximation of RTL languages
• digital literacies in RTL environments
• minimal RTL computing
• digital pedagogy for RTL languages
• RTL TEI XML
• localisation for RTL cultures
• rethinking DH for RTL languages
• RTL digital cultures and the humanities
• RTL digitality for research and pedagogy in the social sciences
• RTL digital cultures and public users’ behaviour

Applicants should send an expression of interest, including a short biographical statement of no more than 150 words, to rtlright2left@gmail.com by January 21, 2019.

From the announcement:

The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University seeks an Assistant Research Scholar to help develop, implement, and extend its digital projects and to participate in the scholarly life of the ISAW community. A key component of the ISAW Library’s mission is to provide access to and support for new and innovative forms of digital scholarship, scholarly communication, and pedagogy in the ancient studies. The Assistant Research Scholar will help the ISAW Library fulfill this charge by collaborating with a diverse group of academic professionals at ISAW and the NYU Division of Libraries on projects related to all or some of the following: digital libraries (e.g., the Ancient World Digital Library and Ancient World Image Bank); linked-data bibliography; digital publication; mapping projects (e.g., Pleiades); archaeological databases; digital preservation and repository projects for ancient studies scholarship; and instruction in a variety of digital tools and techniques, with the aim of helping ISAW faculty, students, and visiting research scholars take full advantage of emerging digital resources and techniques in their research and teaching. The Assistant Research Scholar will be expected to develop or pursue an independent research agenda in any area of ancient studies and library or information studies or the digital humanities. As a member of the ISAW Library team, the Assistant Research Scholar will also have core responsibilities in library operations, bibliographic and grant research, public services, and special projects associated with ISAW’s print collection and public programming.

The Assistant Research Scholar, Digital and Special Projects is a full time, two-year appointment in the ISAW Library, with the possibility of renewal for a third year.

From the announcement:

The Jesuit University of San Francisco’s Gleeson Library | Geschke Learning Resource Center seeks an engaged, innovative, and enthusiastic individual for the position of Digital Collections Librarian. The Library has a strong commitment to inclusive excellence and seeks candidates who will further advance the goal of fostering a diverse and inclusive community. Early-career librarians and candidates from underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.

The Digital Collections Librarian supports the development and implementation of educational outreach programs and will take a proactive approach to working with faculty, undergraduates, and fellow librarians and staff to collaborate on established digital projects and develop new, sustainable research projects, classroom support, and instruction in digital methods. They will reach out to campus constituencies, analyze materials for suitability for our collections, identify potential projects, and establish priorities based on the content’s cultural, academic, or historical value. They may also pursue opportunities for collaborative projects across other higher education and cultural institutions.

The Digital Collections Librarian is responsible for the development and maintenance of Gleeson digital collections across their life-cycle. This position will help shape future directions for digital asset management and preservation systems, and will develop and implement strategies, best practices, standards, and technologies that support discovery, access, management, and preservation of the Libraries’ digital collections.

Librarians are members of the USF Faculty Association, an American Federation of Teachers collective bargaining unit. Appointment is at the Assistant Librarian level.

From the announcement:

The University Libraries seek an experienced, innovative, and collaborative librarian to serve as Director for Scholarly Communications. The UNC Greensboro Libraries are committed to advancing the capabilities of university researchers through improved forms of scholarly communication, particularly in the emerging digital publishing environment. The ideal candidate is a librarian with a law degree (preferred, but not required) who would take leadership in promoting and safeguarding the role of the Library in the scholarly communication process, maximizing access to scholarship, and preserving the full rights of creators, disseminators, and users of scholarly information under current copyright law.

This position will lead outreach efforts on behalf of the University Libraries to campus faculty in support of scholarly publication innovations and reforms, act as a campus resource on copyright compliance, collaborate to further library Open Access initiatives, and facilitate other local content reproduction and dissemination functions. This 12-month tenure track position will collaborate with personnel in departments across the University Libraries, including Technical Services, Electronic Resources and Information Technology (ERIT), and Research, Outreach, and Instruction (ROI). The position will exercise broad independent judgement and authority under the general direction of the Dean of the University Libraries.

The Library Innovation Lab at Harvard University has just released the Caselaw Access Project (CAP), an initiative that aims to make available all published U.S. court decisions:

CAP includes all official, book-published United States case law — every volume designated as an official report of decisions by a court within the United States.

Our scope includes all state courts, federal courts, and territorial courts for American Samoa, Dakota Territory, Guam, Native American Courts, Navajo Nation, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Our earliest case is from 1658, and our most recent cases are from 2018.

Each volume has been converted into structured, case-level data broken out by majority and dissenting opinion, with human-checked metadata for party names, docket number, citation, and date.

The project team has digitized over 40 million pages, representing 6.5 million unique cases. Users can access the data via a bulk download or by using the project’s API.