Headed to ALA Annual? There will be a lot of opportunities for interacting with colleagues working at the intersection of digital humanities and libraries.

At the Digital Humanities Interest Group (DHIG) meeting, self-nominated 2017-2018 Convener candidates will present briefly to the membership. All interested individuals are encouraged to submit self-nominations by June 24. Attendance at ALA Annual is not required for consideration. Post-meeting, the Co-Conveners will distribute a candidate ballot for membership-wide vote.

DHIG has organized a panel, “A Spectrum of Digital Initiatives: Project and Pedagogical Collaborations in Digital Humanities,” with presentations from Laurie Taylor (University of Florida), Emma Annette Wilson (University of Alabama), and Barbara Lewis (University of South Florida). Each panelist will discuss a different use case, ranging from creating research data content in special collections to teaching digital tools.

Finally, if you’d like to mingle over drinks and/or a meal, DHIG is putting together a friendly meetup in collaboration with the Digital Curation Interest Group at Lafayettes Restaurant and Bar, just a short walk from the convention center.

• A Spectrum of Digital Initiatives: Project and Pedagogical Collaborations in Digital Humanities – Saturday, June 25, 1:00-2:30, Orange County Convention Center, Room W108
• Digital Humanities Interest Group + Digital Curation Interest Group Meetup – Saturday, June 25, 5:30-7:30, Lafayettes Restaurant and Bar
• Digital Humanities Interest Group Meeting – Sunday, June 26, 4:00-5:30, HILTON Orlando, Room Orange Ballroom E-F

We hope to see you at one or more event!

– Thomas Padilla and Harriett Green (2015-2016 DHIG Co-Conveners)

Krista White and Hannah Skates Kettler assume Co-Convener duties after ALA Annual 2016

Thomas Padilla

Thomas Padilla is Humanities Data Curator at the University of California Santa Barbara. He publishes, presents, and teaches widely on Humanities data, data curation, and data information literacy. He is Principal Investigator of the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported, Collections as Data. Thomas is a member of the Association for Computers and the Humanities Executive Council (2017-2021), the Global Outlook::Digital Humanities Executive Council, the Integrating digital humanities into the web of scholarship with SHARE Advisory Board, and the ARL Fellowship for Digital and Inclusive Excellence Advisory Group.

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The dh+lib Review, a volunteer-driven service for highlighting and sharing the best of digital humanities and libraries, is looking for editors-at-large for Summer 2015. Sign up for a shift today!

dh+lib Review posts appear on the dh+lib homepage, in a weekly newsletter sent to the ACRL Digital Humanities Interest Group listserv, and in our Twitter stream, and are selected from an aggregated stream of content that is produced and shared by the dh+lib community. This stream – in the form of RSS feeds – casts a wide net and includes content produced by librarians, archivists, museum workers, faculty, information professionals, and technologists, just to name a few.

Our post-publication filtering process relies heavily on the work of our editors-at-large, who volunteer for one-week shifts to survey the stream of content and select what should be highlighted on the dh+lib homepage. Once the editors-at-large have made their nominations, the editors (currently, Zach Coble, Caro Pinto, and Roxanne Shirazi), make a final selection decision, write a brief snippet providing context for each resource, and then publish the week’s batch each Thursday.

Are you interested in volunteering for the dh+lib Review? It’s an easy way to get involved in the dh+lib community and great for staying current with conversations in DH. Editors-at-large commit to a one-week shift that involves approximately 20 minutes a day. We currently need editors-at-large for the Summer 2015 semester – sign up today!

Zach Coble

Digital Scholarship Specialist, New York University

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The dh+lib Review, a volunteer-driven service for highlighting and sharing the best of digital humanities and libraries, is looking for editors-at-large for the Spring 2015 semester. We’ve had a steadily increasing number of editors-at-large for each of the six semesters the Review has been in operation, and we’re hoping to continue the trend. Sign up for a shift today!

The snippets, which appear on the dh+lib homepage, in a weekly newsletter sent to the ACRL Digital Humanities Interest Group listserv, and in our Twitter stream, are selected from an aggregated stream of content that is produced and shared by the dh+lib community. This stream – in the form of RSS feeds – casts a wide net and includes content produced by librarians, archivists, museum workers, faculty, information professionals, and technologists, just to name a few.

The post-publication filtering process relies heavily on the work of our editors-at-large, who volunteer for one-week shifts to survey the stream of content and select what should be highlighted on the dh+lib homepage. Once the editors-at-large have made their nominations, the editors (currently, Zach Coble, Caro Pinto, and Roxanne Shirazi), make a final selection decision, write a brief snippet providing context for each resource, and then publish the week’s batch each Tuesday.

Are you interested in volunteering for the dh+lib Review? It’s an easy way to get involved in the dh+lib community and great for staying current with conversations in DH. Editors-at-large commit to a one-week shift that involves approximately 20 minutes a day. We currently need editors-at-large for the Spring 2015 semester – sign up today!

The Editors

The Editors of dh+lib, Sarah Potvin, Roxanne Shirazi, and Zach Coble.

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The dh+lib Review, a volunteer-driven service for highlighting and sharing the best of digital humanities and libraries, is looking for editors-at-large for the Fall 2014 semester. We’ve had a steadily increasing number of editors-at-large for each of the five semesters the Review has been in operation, and we’re hoping to continue the trend. Sign up for a shift today!

The snippets, which appear on the dh+lib homepage, in a weekly newsletter sent to the ACRL Digital Humanities Interest Group listserv, and in our Twitter stream, are selected from an aggregated stream of content that is produced and shared by the dh+lib community. This stream – in the form of RSS feeds – casts a wide net and includes content produced by librarians, archivists, museum workers, faculty, information professionals, and technologists, just to name a few.

The post-publication filtering process relies heavily on the work of our editors-at-large, who volunteer for one-week shifts to survey the stream of content and select what should be highlighted on the dh+lib homepage. Once the editors-at-large have made their nominations, the editors (currently, Zach Coble, Caro Pinto, and Roxanne Shirazi), make a final selection decision, write a brief snippet providing context for each resource, and then publish the week’s batch each Tuesday.

Are you interested in volunteering for the dh+lib Review? It’s an easy way to get involved in the dh+lib community and great for staying current with conversations in DH. Editors-at-large commit to a one-week shift that involves approximately 20 minutes a day. We currently need editors-at-large for the Fall 2014 semester – sign up today!

Zach Coble

Digital Scholarship Specialist, New York University

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The dh+lib Review, a volunteer-driven service for highlighting and sharing the best of digital humanities and libraries, is looking for editors-at-large for the Summer 2014 semester. We’ve had a steadily increasing number of editors-at-large for each of the four semesters the Review has been in operation, and we’re hoping to continue the trend. Sign up for a shift today!

The snippets, which appear on the dh+lib homepage and in the weekly newsletter sent to the ACRL Digital Humanities Interest Group listserv, are selected from an aggregated stream of content that is produced and shared by the dh+lib community. This stream – in the form of RSS feeds – casts a wide net and includes content produced by librarians, archivists, museum workers, faculty, information professionals, and technologists, just to name a few.

The post-publication filtering process relies heavily on the work of our editors-at-large, who volunteer for one-week shifts to survey the stream of content and select what should be highlighted on the dh+lib homepage. Once the editors-at-large have made their nominations, the editors (currently, Zach Coble, Caro Pinto, and Roxanne Shirazi), make a final selection decision, then write up and post to the dh+lib homepage.

Are you interested in volunteering for dh+lib Review? It’s an easy way to get involved in the dh+lib community and great for staying current with conversations in DH. Editors-at-large commit to a one-week shift that involves approximately 20 minutes a day. We currently need editors-at-large for the Spring 2014 semester – sign up today!

Zach Coble

Digital Scholarship Specialist, New York University

• Web
|
• Twitter
|
• More Posts

The dh+lib Review, a volunteer-driven service for highlighting and sharing the best of digital humanities and libraries, is looking for editors-at-large for the Spring 2014 semester. We’ve had a steadily increasing number of editors-at-large for each of the three semesters the Review has been in operation, and we’re hoping to continue the trend. Sign up for a shift today!

The snippets that appear on the dh+lib homepage are selected from an aggregated stream of content that is produced and shared by the dh+lib community. This stream – in the form of RSS feeds – casts a wide net and includes content produced by librarians, archivists, museum workers, faculty, information professionals, and technologists, just to name a few.

The aggregation process relies heavily on the work of our editors-at-large, who volunteer for one-week shifts to survey the stream of content and select what should be highlighted on the dh+lib homepage. Once the editors-at-large have made their nominations, the editors (currently, Zach Coble, Caro Pinto, and Roxanne Shirazi), make a final selection decision, then write up and post to the dh+lib homepage.

Are you interested in volunteering for dh+lib Review? It’s an easy way to get involved in the dh+lib community and great for staying current with conversations in DH. Editors-at-large commit to a one-week shift that involves approximately 20 minutes a day. We currently need editors-at-large for the Spring 2014 semester – sign up today!

Zach Coble

Digital Scholarship Specialist, New York University

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To aid in navigating the behemoth that is the ALA Annual Conference, we’ve compiled a list of sessions that intersect in some way with the digital humanities. Thanks to all who responded to our call for suggestions. Have a session you’d like us to add? Shoot us an email or find us on twitter @dhandlib.

Update, June 21: Added two Sunday sessions, “What’s New at the NEH?” and “Transformations in Performing Arts Librarianship.”

Update, June 24: Added one Friday preconference session, “Innovative Library Services and Programs in Digital Era: An International Perspective”

Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday

And, of course, be sure to join us at the ACRL Digital Humanities Discussion Group Meeting on Sunday at 4:30pm in the convention center, room N227a.

Friday, June 28th

Introductory Python Workshop [$] [preconference]
WHEN: Friday, June 28, 2013 – 8:30am to 4:00pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S103bc
PRESENTERS: Andromeda Yelton, Carli Spina, Shana McDanold
COST: $235, LITA member; $350, ALA member; $495 non-member (n.b. This is a day-long preconference session and therefore has a cost associated with attendance.)
DESCRIPTION: Attendees at this pre-conference workshop will learn the basics of the Python programming language with ample opportunities for hands-on, project-based practice. Attendees will learn the syntax and key features of Python while working through practice exercises and completing a short project in Python. Experienced teaching staff will be on hand to provide support and feedback throughout the workshop.

This workshop will be geared towards individuals with limited or no programming experience and will aim to create a supportive and enjoyable environment for those who want to learn a new programming language. Please note: Attendees will be asked to set up a Python development environment on the computer they plan to bring to the pre-conference in advance. The teaching staff will offer support throughout this process, including virtual office hours.

Innovative Library Services and Programs in Digital Era: An International Perspective (International Relations Round Table) [$] [preconference]
WHEN: Friday, June 28, 2013 – 8:30am to 12pm, followed by lunch until 1pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S401bc
PRESENTERS: Constantia Constantinou, Nancy E. Gwinn, Martin R. Kalfatovic, Valerie Hill, Anton DuPlessis
COST: $90 (n.b. This is a half-day preconference session and therefore has a cost associated with attendance.)
DESCRIPTION: International Relations Round Table Preconference addresses important issues, trends, and strategies that contribute to the understanding of the transformation of 21th century libraries along with the emerging technology. This year’s preconference program features case studies related to digital library development and the preservation of local culture and historical heritages. The panel presentations highlight the interrelationships among digital preservation, digital resource development and management, as well as their presentation and dissemination to the global community. Learn about and discuss six interesting case studies, addressing global perspectives on issues, trends, and strategies that contribute to the understanding of the transformation of 21th century libraries along with emerging technology.

Saturday, June 29th

Data, E-Data, Data Curation: Our New Frontier [program]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 8:30am to 10:00am
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S501bcd
PRESENTERS: Abigail Goben, Sarah Sheehan, Dorothea Salo, James Mullins, Joan Starr, Robert Sandusky
DESCRIPTION: Data management and curation may be a great new opportunity but how are libraries tackling it? We already know how to archive traditional materials but what do we do with terabytes of faculty research data? How do we manage that data set for our students’ research? Join us for a big picture view of the issues surrounding e-data collection and access from Joan Starr, Jim Mullins, Dorothea Salo, and Robert Sandusky. Bring questions to help you identify opportunities and challenges already happening on your campus.

Map and Geospatial Information Round Table (MAGIRT)/GODORT GIS Discussion Group [discussion group]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 8:30am to 10:00am
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S504a
PRESENTERS: Angela Lee, Tracey Hughes
DESCRIPTION: The GIS Discussion Group begins at 8:30 am and focuses on topics related to geographic information systems (GIS). In addition to discussion topics brought forward by session attendees, there will also be a focused topic discussion on education for geospatial librarians.

The Research Footprint: Libraries Tracking and Enhancing Scholarly and Scientific Impact [program]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 8:30am to 10:00am
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N427bc
PRESENTERS: Cathy Sarli, Jason Priem, Kristi Holmes, Rush G. Miller
DESCRIPTION:
Increasingly, libraries are building services designed to assess and improve the impact of their institutions’ research activities. This is an increasingly important, but complex task as more and more scholarship is digitally shared and accessed through traditional and non-traditional pathways.
HASHTAG: #alctsac13

Open Folklore: Improving Open Access [poster]
Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 10:30am to 12:00pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center, Hall A, Exhibit Floor
PRESENTERS: Garett Montanez, Juliet Hardesty
DESCRIPTION: Open Folklore, from the American Folklore Society and Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, is an Open Access scholarly resource. It brings together feeds of freely available online scholarly materials from collections as diverse as HathiTrust, institutional repositories, and online journals that focus specifically on materials relevant to the study of folklore. The next step for Open Folklore is to make the search and discovery of these materials as user-friendly as possible. Gathering the harvested collection feeds into Drupal, an open-source content management system, and creating Drupal-specific Biblio records allows Open Folklore to index and provide tailored access for the folklore researcher – creating faceted searching on indexes of date ranges, subjects, authors, sources, and collections specific to the field of folklore. Contextual help also provides educational information to folklore researchers on what types of sources are being used and how Open Access resources benefit folklorists and open the scholarship of folklore to new venues, audiences, and ideas.

This poster will showcase the plans and progress of Open Folklore’s new faceted searching interface and report feedback from the folklore community on ease of use and educational impact.

Visualizing Digital Collections: Creating User-Friendly Search and Browse Tools [poster]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 10:30am to 12:00pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center, Hall A, Exhibit Floor
PRESENTERS: Laura Deal
DESCRIPTION: This poster will discuss the process of creating fun and informative data visualization tools for digital collections, drawing on the experiences of the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) Digital Archive and survey data from CWIHP’s users. (New beta website: http://cwihp-live.secondstory.net, permanent address: http://digitalarchive.org). One of the main goals of the re-designed CWIHP Digital Archive was to develop a user-friendly way of visualizing the project’s complex set of historical documents. CWIHP’s previous website made it very difficult for new researchers to orient themselves to the collections and get a good understanding of the site’s content. CWIHP has a very complex collection of archival documents which have been translated from 25 different languages and drawn from over 100 different archives around the world. The website’s new “browse” tool attempts to give users an easy and fun way to explore the documents. An interactive map allows users to zoom in on the specific region of the world or a country in which they are interested, while below a constantly-updated graph displays the number of documents available by year, as well as the most common subject headings for that location. Although CWIHP worked with a dedicated web design firm, other institutions could build similar interactive data visualizations using freely available tools such as elastic lists (http://moritz.stefaner.eu/projects/elastic-lists/) and Viewshare (http://viewshare.org). Such tools leverage the detailed metadata digital collections already contain, creating exciting new ways of visualizing and interacting with existing online collections.

Literary Texts and the Library in the Digital Age: New Collaborations for European and American Studies [program]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 1:00pm to 2:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S105d
PRESENTERS: Patricia Thurston, Glen Worthey, Laura Mandell, Paula Kaufman
DESCRIPTION: Digital technologies are opening up new possibilities for the investigation of literary and historic texts. They are also changing library spaces and reconfiguring relationships between librarians and researchers. This program investigates new roles for European and American Studies librarians in this emerging physical and virtual environment. What old skills remain relevant and what new skills are needed? What new forms of collaboration are developing between librarians, scholars, and IT personnel?

Scholarly Communications Interest Group [interest group]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 1:00pm to 2:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N128
PRESENTERS: Rebecca Bryant, Charles Watkinson
DESCRIPTION: There will be two presentations: Rebecca Bryant will discuss the ORCID project, and Charles Watkinson will discuss the The Library Publishing Coalition Project. The presentations will be followed by a brief business meeting.

Preserving History: Establishing a National Latino Digital Archive [affiliate event]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 4:30pm to 5:30pm
LOCATION: Palmer House Hilton, Chicago Room
PRESENTERS: Lillian Castillo-Speed, Lizette Guerra, Romelia Salinas
DESCRIPTION: With the advent of digital content we continue to see a pattern of certain information being privileged over another. To ensure that communities are represented in this environment in a manner that is respectful and equitable, it is imperative that targeted efforts be carried out. It is this backdrop that has informed the work of the Latino Digital Archive Group which is setting the stage for the development of a national Latino Digital Archive.

Attendees will be engaged in a dialog regarding the complexities of developing a national Latino Digital Archive. The presenters would like to highlight the progress of this project as well as the range of content the archive will contain. This digital resource will include digitized and digital born materials reflecting the Latino community’s own diverse voices as well as content that is not generally considered “Latino” but nonetheless represents issues that have shaped our experiences both individually and collectively – women’s movement, labor, immigration, education, law, policy, environmentalism, health, language, culture, music, and the arts. Realistically, this list could go on and on, but the point being that this new resource will attempt to narrow if not erase the information gap that exists between users and information. Attendees are invited to join this emerging community of practice that will continue to present us with the responsibility of documenting, preserving, and providing access to our communities’ stories.
HASHTAG: #reforma

Digital Special Collections Discussion Group (ACRL RBMS) [discussion group]
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 – 4:30pm to 5:30pm
LOCATION: Hyatt Regency Chicago, Grand D South

Sunday, June 30th

Digital Preservation Interest Group [interest group]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 8:30am to 10:00am
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N138

Makerspaces: Creating, Exploring, Pitfalls [program]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 8:30am to 10:00am
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S106b
PRESENTERS: Jason Griffey, Tod Colegrove
DESCRIPTION: Separate of the preconference, this will be an opportunity for regular conference attendees to discuss and discover maker spaces. They will be able to try out a few machines (pending what speakers can fit in suitcases) and find ways to incorporate maker spaces into their libraries.

What’s New at the NEH? [program]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 10:30am to 11:30am
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S501bcd
PRESENTERS: Karen Kenton, Karen Mittleman
DESCRIPTION: An NEH initiative, “Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle,” will encourage public conversations about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in U.S. history. Launching in 2013 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, this program will offer a packaged set of NEH-funded films on Civil Rights history to 500 communities across the nation over three years.

Four powerful documentary films (The Abolitionists, Slavery by Another Name, Freedom Riders and The Loving Story) are the centerpiece of this project. Taken together, these films tell a remarkable story– about grassroots activism, about the power of individuals to effect change, and about the changing contexts in which Americans have understood and struggled with concepts of freedom and equality. We hope that this film set will prompt reflection and discussion of these issues.

NEH is exploring many options for community programming, including an innovative online film screening and discussion platform developed by ITVS. We invite participants to share ideas, propose partnerships, and help give shape to this initiative in ways that will make it meaningful to your communities.

[Editor’s note: This session will also include brief updates from Perry Collins and Leah Weinryb Grohsgal on the Office of Digital Humanities and the Division of Preservation and Access. Attendees interested in NEH funding for digital projects are welcome to chat with the Program Officers in attendance.]

Ignite Sunday Session: Creating Geospatial Data Services – Needs and Challenges [program]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 11:30am to 12:00pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S102d
PRESENTERS: Nicole Kong
DESCRIPTION: As part of the data services in libraries, geospatial data service has some unique characteristics comparing to data in other disciplines. For example, most of geospatial data could be visualized on an on-line map, which gives data providers additional options for data sharing. In this presentation, several topics about geospatial data services will be discussed. These topics include: 1) the nature of geospatial data; 2) spatial data in different disciplines; 3) different expectations in spatial data sharing; 4) challenges of creating geospatial data services to address different requirements; 5) possible strategies and models.

Digital History: New Methodologies Facilitated by New Technologies [program]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 1:00pm to 2:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S402a
PRESENTERS: Nancy A. Bunker, Josh Honn, Michael Kramer, Rachel Rooney
DESCRIPTION: Digital History is providing new pathways to traditional historical research methodologies. Helping students and faculty members utilize the myriad of historical research options is becoming a major task for reference and instructional librarians. Panelists will address the opportunities in researching with digital history and the problems they have encountered in using these sources.

Digital Curation Interest Group (ACRL) [discussion group]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 1:00pm to 2:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N135

PRESENTER: Bradley Daigle
DESCRIPTION: Presentation (45 minutes, followed by 10-15 minutes Q&A): “Where the Wild Things Aren’t: How Digital Curation Can Tame Even the Most Persnickety Content.” Business meeting to follow.
HASHTAG: #dcig13

Bridging the Digital Divide: Technology and Information Access in Africa [program]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 1:00pm to 2:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S103bc
PRESENTERS: Graziano Kratli, Innocent Rumgambwa, Jane Meyers, Olubukola Olatise, Yetunde Zaid
DESCRIPTION: Technology has brought changes in library service delivery, and the Internet has become the dominant mode of information exchange in libraries. New opportunities for collecting, organizing, disseminating local content and providing access to remotely distributed resources have emerged. In Africa this transformation has been slow due to the digital divide. There are some efforts ongoing to close the gap. This panel presentation will describe technology initiatives in African libraries and provide insights to the challenges encountered in efforts to utilize technology to enhance services. Panelists will discuss digitization projects, institutional repositories, resource sharing, Internet connectivity and other technologies.

Map and Geospatial Information Round Table (MAGIRT) GeoTech Committee Meeting [committee meeting]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 1:00pm to 2:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N136
DESCRIPTION: Please join us for our committee meeting regarding geographic information and geospatial technologies. Discussion is wide-ranging and lively.

The GeoPolitical Web: Chronicling Social Media Discourse through Archiving and Analytics [poster]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 2:30pm to 4:00pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center, Hall A, Exhibit Floor
PRESENTERS: Catherine Larson, Hsinchun Chen
DESCRIPTION: By collecting international web forums and creating a user-friendly interface, the University of Arizona Artificial Intelligence Lab has created the GeoPolitical Web archive and portal (aka, GeoWeb). Users may search the archive, retrieve, and translate postings of interest. Text mining tools have also been used for topical analysis and teasing out major conversational themes.
social media archives.

Transformations in Performing Arts Librarianship (ACRL Arts) [program}
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 3:00pm to 4:00pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N427a
PRESENTERS: Judith Thomas, Doug Reside, Susan Wiesner
DESCRIPTION: The study of the performing arts is being transformed by new methods and technologies, presenting challenges and opportunities to librarians. This session features two panelists, Doug Reside, Digital Curator for the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, and Susan Wiesner, 2011 Innovation Fellow for the Council of Learned Societies, who will discuss their own groundbreaking work and suggest ways that librarians can engage with new initiatives in the performing arts.

ALA President’s Program with Dan Cohen of DPLA [president’s program]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 3:30pm to 5:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S100a
PRESENTERS: Dan Cohen
DESCRIPTION: Dan Cohen, Founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will be the featured speaker in the ALA President’s Program & Awards Presentation at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference on Sunday, June 30, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Cohen will focus on the role and contribution of the DPLA to ALA President Maureen Sullivan’s ongoing initiative, “The Promise of Libraries Transforming Communities.”

After Cohen’s presentation, Sullivan will conduct an interview and moderate a Q&A with the audience.

Digital Humanities Discussion Group [discussion group]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 4:30pm to 5:30pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center N227a
DESCRIPTION: The Digital Humanities Discussion Group will cover DH space in libraries; DH and data management; DH training for librarians; and the demographics of DH librarians.
HASHTAG: #acrldhdg

DH Happy Hour [drinks]
WHEN: Sunday, June 30, 2013 – 5:30am to 7:30pm
LOCATION: La Cantina Grill, 1911 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
DESCRIPTION: Join us for drinks and rousing conversation after the Digital Humanities Discussion Group. We’ll walk to the bar after the meeting, or join us there.

Monday, July 1st

Conversation Starters: Altmetrics, the Decoupled Journal, and the future of scholarly publishing [program]
WHEN: Monday, July 1, 2013 – 4:00pm to 4:45pm
LOCATION: McCormick Place Convention Center S102d
PRESENTERS: Jason Priem
DESCRIPTION: In growing numbers, scholars are moving their workflows online. As that happens, important, once-invisible parts of the scientific process–conversations, arguments, recommendations, reads, bookmarks, and more–are leaving online traces.

Mining these traces or “altmetrics” can give us faster, more diverse, and more accurate data of scholarly impact. What is more, this information could inform powerful, network-aware filters that supplement and even replace the increasingly overwhelmed peer-review system. We’ll discuss the current research and practice of altmetrics, as well as their long-term implications: the potential to power a fast, open, and truly web-native scholarly communication ecosystem.

The dh+lib review, a volunteer-driven service for highlighting and sharing the best of digital humanities and libraries, is looking for editors-at-large for the summer. We had a strong response for the spring semester and have featured a lot of great content, and we are looking to carry the momentum into the summer. Sign up for a shift today!

The snippets that appear on the dh+lib homepage are selected from an aggregated stream of content that is produced and shared by the dh+lib community. This stream – in the form of RSS feeds – casts a wide net and includes content produced by librarians, archivists, museum workers, faculty, information professionals, and technologists, just to name a few.

The aggregation process relies heavily on the work of our editors-at-large, who volunteer for one-week shifts to survey the stream of content and select what should be highlighted on the dh+lib homepage. Once the editors-at-large have made their nominations, the editors (currently, Sarah Potvin, Roxanne Shirazi, and Zach Coble), make a final selection decision, then write up and post to the dh+lib homepage.

Are you interested in volunteering for dh+lib review? It’s an easy way to get involved in the dh+lib community and great for staying current with conversations in DH. Editors-at-large commit to a one-week shift that involves approximately 30 minutes a day. We currently need editors-at-large for the summer semester – sign up today!

Zach Coble

Digital Scholarship Specialist, New York University

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In March 2012, a conversation bubbled up on the newly-created ACRL Digital Humanities discussion group (DH DG) listserv about the need for a blog or online resource for those of us “big tent” information professionals– librarians, archivists, curators, and students–engaged with digital humanities. When the group assembled at the June 2012 ALA Annual conference in Anaheim (Bob Kosovsky, in attendance, has helpfully shared his notes), the conversation around how this resource might take shape deepened. Not wanting to restrict these decisions to those in attendance at ALA, we circulated a link to an informal survey on the DH DG listserv over the summer of 2012 to gauge preferences. A more thorough account of those results can be found here; what follows is a digest.

Who responded?

Librarians were the top respondents to the survey; of the 83 submissions, 65 identified themselves with this category. Additionally, most respondents did not have “Digital Humanities” as part of their job descriptions or titles. A slender majority of respondents hailed from institutions that either host or plan to host dedicated DH facilities; curiously, an impressive 21% noted that these facilities were “under development.” A desire for resources, then, is coming in part from those based in institutions with emergent DH initiatives, or from professionals engaged with DH outside of the bounds of dedicated centers or facilities.

Source preferences

The survey attempted to gauge whether the community had a preference for the source of content–aggregated or original– in addition to what themes and stories might be included.

The group assembled at ALA in June responded strongly to the question of source, indicating a preference for original blog posts rather than aggregated content. Additionally, we heard requests for content aimed at profiling and spotlighting the work being done in DH in collaboration with libraries. There was a particular interest in case studies around project management.

Source was not as prevalent a concern for survey respondents. While 75% of those who indicated a preference voted for original content, this number represents only 48% of survey respondents. 36% of those responding reported “No preference.”

Content preferences

Asked to express a preference for the topics to be covered–whether through original or aggregated content, respondents favored:

+ Case studies or write-ups of projects
+ Reviews or write-ups of tools
+ Articles on best practices around DH librarianship
+ Announcements and calendar of DH trainings, events, and conferences
+ Links to papers, presentations, and talks on DH librarianship published elsewhere

A surprising dud of the features list was “Profiles of DH librarians,” which 10% of respondents singled out as “Not helpful.”

Beyond the rankings of features we suggested in the survey, about a quarter of you responded to “What resources not listed above would you like included?’ with thoughtful suggestions (the full range of which can be found here).

What kind of blog are you?

A range of interesting descriptions were provided as freeform in response to the request to “describe the blog you would most want to read, recommend to colleagues, and contribute to.” 37 responses were recorded. Some took the opportunity to emphasize a preference for original content, an aggregation of current events, a practical or theoretical focus, or a regular posting schedule. Others were thoughtful about the spread of the blog, calling for a resource offering “tiers of accessibility,” with “appeal to the humanities librarian who has been thrown into the digital humanities cauldron and also to the librarian/IT specialist who has been given an assignment to support the digital humanities,” expressing “the diversity of DH librarianship.”

One respondent requested “non-English-language efforts and reportage.” We also saw some themes around a need for advocacy and commentary that went beyond standards and announcements, including:

+ calls for “critical” content that “rais[ed] difficult questions with space for discussion”;
+ “Something with ‘meat’– thoughtful/analytical content”;
+ “thoughtful writing that consistently balances hype and hope”; and
+ “frank discussion of the difficulties” around DH projects.

Several respondents emphasized the value and potential of a resource specifically focused on DH and information professionals. One wrote: “ideally, the blog would foster an actual community.” Another wrote: “It seems obvious, but I’d like the site to make sure it fully covers the library angle.” We saw an eagerness for content that would help librarians do DH well– and better.

For those who requested more specific content, we will be soliciting along those lines, in an attempt to meet your demand. If you are interested in suggesting a topic or post, whether you want to write it yourself or toss it to another author, please use our contributors form or contact us directly.

-Sarah Potvin and Roxanne Shirazi