Marking the 20th anniversary of Zotero’s October 2006 launch, Dan Cohen (Northeastern University) recounts the reference manager’s early history in “The Slow Formation of Durable Software,” published in his Humane Ingenuity newsletter. Cohen describes the Center for History and New Media (now RRCHNM) at George Mason University in the early 2000s, where historians who coded “as a secondary rather than primary skill” built small tools for collecting history online. Two of those tools, Elena Razlogova’s Scribe, a desktop application for notes and citations, and Cohen’s own Web Scrapbook, a browser-based collecting tool, became the basis for an IMLS grant to build “SmartFox: the Scholar’s Browser for Digital Collections.” The project was pitched as a way to capture and organize materials from the growing number of digitized library and museum collections.

The post follows the project through its development on the newly released Firefox, the arrival of developers including Dan Stillman, who still leads Zotero’s development, and a long search for a name, which ended with an Albanian word meaning “to learn well or master.” Cohen contrasts the five years it took to arrive at a working prototype with today’s AI-assisted software development, arguing that the slow, collaborative process is part of why Zotero has lasted. Readers interested in what happened after launch can turn to Sean Takats’s companion post, “Zotero at Twenty.”

A former member of a student-run university broadcasting station at Kyonggi University in South Korea has developed the VOKU (Voice of Kyonggi University) Archive, a digitization project including detailed documentation of a workflow for LLM-assisted name redaction to preserve the privacy of students and staff whose names appear on the over 66,000 cue sheets used in the project. Jeoung Geun-Yeong, the independent creator of the project and a former station member of the radio station, digitized cue sheets created for the station’s student-produced campus radio broadcasts from 1988-2019, which can be explored through the project’s main website.

The project does not make publicly accessible the documents themselves nor the OCR’d full-text of the cue sheets, but it does attempt to preserve the history of student broadcasting through the application of human-and-agent-redacted versions of many of the cue sheets, making the materials accessible to the public in a way that prioritizes privacy by replacing real names of students and staff with consistently reused/ID-linked pseudonyms, carrying the synthetic name identifiers of people mentioned in the cue sheets across multiple documents. The project workflow is documented in a GitHub repository and the project data is hosted on Hugging Face, including some selected document images and text but not the full OCR of the complete real scripts, operational databases, real-name mappings, or private review records.

The project’s README discusses how Jeoung utilized GPT-6 to map named entities to persistent identifiers and perform the redaction of the documents in the archive.

Chinese Red Record documents anti-Chinese lynchings, riots, massacres, and expulsions in the American West between 1850 and 1915. Created by Kevin Hegg as a companion to his dissertation work conducted at James Madison University, The Chinese Red Record: Western Lynch Law and the Nationalization of Racial Terror, 1853–1915, the archive takes its title from Ida B. Wells’s The Red Record. It traces how lynching, exclusion, and expulsion worked together to drive Chinese communities from mining camps, railroad towns, and cities across the region. The project draws on a compiled dataset of documented incidents, assembled from newspapers digitized through Chronicling America, the California Digital Newspaper Collection, and Newspapers.com, as well as existing resources such as the CSDE Lynching Database.

Users can browse individual records by date, place, and type of violence, read transcribed newspaper clippings alongside their citations, and explore a timeline, map, and charts, including a visualization comparing lynchings of Black and Chinese victims over time. The dataset is available to download in CSV, Excel, and PDF formats, with fields covering location, accusation, occupation, and method of killing. The site also includes “Ask the Archive,” an AI chat feature for questions about events and themes, which the project notes is not a substitute for browsing the records directly. Visitors can submit evidence of additional incidents for review.

Charis Books & More will host a hybrid panel discussion, in person in Decatur, Georgia, and online via Crowdcast, of Lauren Klein’s Data by Design: Visualization and Power from Abolition to the Dawn of Data Science (MIT Press) on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at 7:30pm ET, the same day the book is published. The book traces how data visualization has been used both to consolidate knowledge and power and to expose oppression and bring about change. Its examples include a diagram of captives in the hold of a slave ship made by British antislavery activists, and a map a Ñudzahui (Mixtec) painter created to document his people’s claims to their land. The book also includes new visualizations by Klein and her research team, which can be explored on an accompanying interactive website.

Klein, Professor of Data & Decision Sciences and English at Emory University and director of its Digital Humanities Lab, will be joined by contributors Margy Adams, Shiyao Li, Tanvi Sharma, and Jay Varner of the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. Catherine D’Ignazio, Klein’s co-author on Data Feminism and director of MIT’s Data + Feminism Lab, will moderate. The event is free, with registration required for virtual attendance.

The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) has shared a call for submissions for its annual conference, DH2027, to be held at the University of Galway, Ireland, from June 28 to July 3, 2027. The conference will be partly hybrid, and accepted authors will be asked to identify their preference for in-person or online attendance.

From the call:

Conference Theme: “Creativity” 

Creativity has always been part of digital humanities. It is present in the works and practices we study as well as in the ways we build collections, design tools, model data, make comparisons, create editions, develop visualisations and interpret cultural materials. Digital humanities research often depends on finding new ways to work with materials that do not fit easily into existing categories or methods.

For DH2027, we invite the community to think about creativity in this broad sense. What does creativity mean when humanistic work is increasingly carried out with computational methods, digital media and artificial intelligence? How are new forms of cultural expression changing what we study and how we study it? And where does creativity lie in research practices that may appear, at first sight, to be mainly technical or analytical? Creativity also takes place under constraint. Languages, cultural traditions, datasets, standards, platforms, infrastructures, copyright, access, labour, institutional settings and environmental costs all influence what can be made, studied, represented and shared. Such constraints can limit creative possibilities, but they can also lead to new methods and different ways of seeing cultural materials.

Proposals are particularly invited that engage with one of the following areas:

• Computational creativity
• Creative methods and interpretation
• Creative engagements with cultural heritage
• Digital arts
• Creative technologies

Proposals may be submitted for long papers, short papers, posters, and pre-conference workshops. Details on session formats and special conference tracks are available in the CFP.

Deadline for submissions: November 20, 2026. Proposals must be submitted via ConfTool: https://www.conftool.pro/dh2027/.

Proposals are invited for Archives and Resistance: A Virtual Symposium on Digital Preservation and Publication in the Context of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, to be held February 19–20, 2027. From the call, the symposium focuses on how “researchers, archivists, students, community members, and others are using digital tools and methodologies to recover archival materials and make them available and accessible to expand our understanding of the past and reclaim and promote histories that have been overlooked, suppressed, or erased.” Organizers welcome individual 15-minute presentations and panels of three to four presentations. The symposium is co-sponsored by the Association for Documentary Editing, the Society for Textual Scholarship, Mapping the Black Digital and Public Humanities, African American Digital & Experimental Humanities (AADHum), and eLaboratories.

Proposals are due November 20, 2026.

The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) has shared a call for proposals for participation in its twenty-fifth annual meeting, which will be held fully online from June 3-5, 2027. Proposals on all topics relevant to cultural studies will be considered, with priority given to those that engage the conference’s theme of Thresholds.

From the call for proposals:

In more ways than one, we exist at the threshold: the resurgence of fascist governance; the potential elimination of Black studies, Ethnic studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies from the University; the tipping point of runaway climate change; mounting violations of privacy via AI and other technology. Yet, scholars push back against presentist conceptions of the threshold. Black, Indigenous, and Queer scholars, for example, have illustrated how their communities have long been impacted by colonial and environmental catastrophe. Our political rhetoric, our economic forecast, our climatological outlook, and our popular imagination calls attention incessantly to our “momentous moment”–perpetually on the brink, at the edge, at an inflection point. This rhetoric of impending catastrophe and permacrisis often serves to maintain the status quo, or obfuscate the actual sites of suffering and loci of power that perpetuate that physical, political, economic and environmental violence. Thus, scholars raise the question, who and what histories are left out by certain framings of the threshold? At the same time, this threshold does not only gesture to an impending doom, but possibilities for imagining otherwise: How might we detour away from the destinies prescribed by Western colonial regimes? How might we re-conceptualize our understanding of difference? The liminality of thresholds calls attention to the increasingly blurry boundaries between assumed oppositions: the human and the technological, the natural and the artificial, along with myriad taxonomies and categories of race, gender, sex, sexuality, ability, and identity. What new possibilities for subversive agency exist among those unruly bodies which exceed the limited categories placed upon them?

Submissions should be made by November 20, 2026, through the EasyChair link on the CFP webpage.

The Distant Viewing Lab at the University of Richmond invites applications for two funded training workshops in 2027, one virtual in February and one in-person in Richmond, VA, in March. The workshops have been sponsored by the Mellon Foundation; selected participants for the in-person workshop will receive a stipend to cover travel and related expenses.

From the opportunity webpage:

What you will learn

Over four days, participants will learn:

• how to formulate humanities questions that are amenable to computational analysis;
• how to apply state-of-the-art AI algorithms to study visual and multimodal collections;
• how to develop custom AI annotations to understand an image archive of their choice;
• the theory and method of distant viewing.

How to apply

Applications are due by 31 October 2026 and include:

• a CV or résumé;
• a statement of interest (300–500 words) that addresses your current research or interests related to distant viewing or visual culture, what you hope to gain from the workshop, and (optionally) how you might apply what you learn. Please also briefly describe any relevant technical background you have, such as prior coursework, tools you’ve used, or related projects.

You are welcome to apply for either workshop or for both. Each participant will attend only one of the two.

Read more about the opportunity here.

From the posting:

The Digital Production Associate (“DPA”) contributes to digital production workflows in an active library environment within the Distinctive Collections & Digital Scholarship Division. Reporting to the Head of Digital Initiatives and Open Publishing, the DPA is responsible for the digitization of textual, photographic, and audiovisual materials associated with The Claremont Colleges Digital Library and other special projects. The DPA contributes to the success of digitization projects through effective collaboration, communication, and by skillful project management and oversight of assigned digital library operations and the special collections scan-on-demand program. Key responsibilities include contributing to the creation, use, migration, and management of digital objects and metadata; contributing to the establishment and improvement of best practices for digitization and publishing workflows, creating documentation, keeping and reporting accurate statistics, training digital production student assistants and temporary project staff; and maintaining effective communication with stakeholders.

• Priority Deadline: The deadline for first consideration is November 13, 2026. Applications received by this date will receive priority consideration; the position will remain open until filled.
• Please note that a cover letter and CV/resume are required along with the application.

From the announcement:

IUIAS seeks a Program Management Specialist to lead a Digital Research Initiative housed at the institute. Working collaboratively with the IAS Team, the position leads support services, research, and scholarly development.

Department Specific Responsibilities

• Consults with center affiliates to assist in research planning and skills building for projects using a wide variety of digital methodologies and toolsets, such as quantitative text analysis, network analysis, Geographic Information System (GIS), web scraping, digital art and design, and qualitative analytic software.
• Supports affiliate research by maintaining and expanding awareness of a breadth of resources and experts at IU in various fields, as well as asynchronous tutorial materials.
• Maintains and expands the impact of the Institute’s work through relationships with IU faculty, centers, departments, and programs.
• Tracks program impact and evaluates this data to improve the reach and scope of the Initiative’s activities and ensure affiliate needs are being met.

From the job posting:

Job Summary

The Data Curation Specialist for Humanities and Social Sciences advances the mission of the Library through working with faculty, students and staff to help manage, share and preserve their research data and other content of scholarly value, with a specialized focus on Humanities and Social Sciences. This is a highly collaborative position requiring coordination and negotiation of relationships and responsibilities across the Library and the University.

You will be an important member of the Deep Blue Repository & Research Data Services (DBRRDS) team and contribute to all aspects of its work. You will help develop data management and sharing plans, consult with faculty, staff, and students on their scholarly communication needs in collaboration with librarian experts and subject specialists, provide training to librarians and researchers on managing and sharing their scholarship and research data, and help researchers share their scholarship and research data with others through the library’s Deep Blue Documents and Deep Blue Data repositories.

You will be the primary service contact for DBRRDS with Humanities and Social Sciences faculty, staff and students at U-M’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses. Other service activities and functions may be negotiated depending upon your knowledge, expertise, and interest.

You will report directly to the Director of Deep Blue Repository & Research Data Services under the Associate University Librarian for Publishing.

You may supervise student workers.

What You’ll Do

While partnering with colleagues at the Library, U-M Office of Research, Information Technology Services, Advanced Research Computing, as well as selected academic programs, institutes, departments, schools, and colleges across U-M campuses, you will engage in:

Consultation (20%)

• You will use your knowledge of best practices in document and data curation and its potential application in different research settings to serve as a consultant for faculty and students in Humanities and Social Sciences fields. Consultation activities will range from single meetings to address a particular need to longer-term collaborations with researchers to explore or address larger issues. This may include participating in funded research projects as a named partner, depending on the interests, expertise and capacity of the person in this position.

Education and Community Development (25%)

• You will identify and connect with faculty and students who are engaged or interested in curating data and scholarly content from Humanities and Social Sciences fields. You will offer workshops and other educational programming on introductory and specialized topics of interest to the U-M community. You will also coordinate or lead meetings, events, or projects designed to facilitate communication, connections, and engagement between faculty, staff, students, and research centers across the U-M campuses.

Development of Local Standards, Tools and Support (20%)

• Using your knowledge of best practices in curation, as well as the needs of U-M researchers, you will design, develop and implement local standards of practice for the Library and the U M community to apply in support of advancing data curation and document deposit workflows. You will serve as the main liaison to the Rackham Graduate School and coordinate its dissertation deposit workflows. You will also design technical and policy tools that are practical and easy to use to facilitate and enhance the data and scholarly content produced by the research being done at U-M. This may include pursuing external funding depending on the expertise, interest and capacity of the person in this position.

Data and Digital Curation (15%)

• You will review data sets submitted to Deep Blue Data, in conjunction with other experts as needed, to assess the condition of the data set and to make recommendations to enhance the value and accessibility of the data for others. You will communicate recommendations to the researcher to address gaps, improve the value of the data’s findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR), and enhance the data’s potential for reproducibility. You will serve as a data curator in the Data Curation Network (https://datacuration.network), a consortium of academic libraries offering data curation and repository services.

Service Response (10%)

• In conjunction with the other data curators, you will monitor and resolve service requests received for Deep Blue Documents and Deep Blue Data. These requests may range from supporting depositors to reaching out to authors to release their work upon request. You will also work with the developers of Deep Blue Documents to provide reports to collection administrators upon request.

Professional Development and Service (10%)

• You will pursue enrichment and professional development activities as appropriate to the position and individual interests. You will also engage and contribute to the library, disciplinary, and other relevant communities of practice.

Skills You Have

• An advanced degree (Masters or PhD level) in a relevant academic discipline or a Master’s Degree in Library Science.
• One (1) year direct experience with the information technologies and best practices prevalent in research data management, sharing, and/or curation.
• One (1) year combined experience with and/or education with at least one type of data. This could include qualitative data, observational data, experimental data, code, etc.
• Demonstrated commitment to protecting the integrity of sensitive data (including balancing openness and protection) as well as compliance with relevant regulations and adherence to professional ethics.
• Familiarity with the FAIR and CARE principles and the necessity of making research accessible for the benefit of the global community.
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering a welcoming environment by recognizing and incorporating differing viewpoints, backgrounds, and ideas to enrich the organization.
• Motivation to provide excellent service and to collaboratively improve workflows and processes.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and an ability to present and share ideas clearly and effectively to diverse audiences.

You May Also Have

• One (1) year combined experience and/or education with at least one type of Humanities and/or Social Sciences data. This could include qualitative data, observational data, experimental data, code, etc.
• Experience supporting researcher information needs and creating effective responses to meet those needs in a service.
• Experience working in an academic library.
• Experience working with data repositories.
• Experience working through the nuances of sensitive data, including ethical issues and compliance with journal and funding agency mandates.

(Note: desired qualifications above are not required to apply and be considered for the position).

Modes of Work

This position is expected to be hybrid. Candidates with exceptional qualifications may be considered for a fully remote work arrangement. Flexible work arrangements are made at the discretion of the hiring department, reviewed annually, and subject to change based on business needs.

Additional Information

The anticipated hire date is in January 2027.

This appointment is subject to the UM/LEO-GLAM collective bargaining agreement.

Appointment is anticipated as an Associate Librarian or Senior Associate Librarian. Salary and rank are dependent on the candidate’s qualifications and experience. The target salary ranges for this position are $69,000 to $79,000 for the Associate Librarian rank, and $79,000 to $89,000 for the Senior Associate Librarian rank.

Librarian appointments carry with them increased expectations regarding professional development, professional engagement, research, and service, in keeping with the library’s process for librarian promotion and advancement.

The University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance, generous time off (24 vacation days per year, and 15 sick leave days a year), matched retirement contributions with immediate vesting, professional development opportunities, and more. TIAA and Fidelity Investments’ retirement benefits are available.

For questions about this posting or to request accommodations, please contact libraryjobs@umich.edu.