Bryn Mawr Classical Review. ACRL Digital Humanities Discussion Group. Do you have the skills and knowledge to transform how university students and faculty publish and access scholarly information?
Are you committed to keeping libraries at the forefront of access to information? If so, we need your cutting edge expertise to provide leadership and vision for the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries’ scholarly communication program and to direct and set priorities for the Libraries’ initiatives and partnerships in digital humanities and data management services. The Digital Humanities Daily. Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog. Digital Humanities and the Library. A Bibliography I originally prepared this bibliography for the Association of Research Libraries’ Digital Humanities SPEC Kit, an abstract of which is available here.
I try to update this list frequently. Additions welcome. I hope that this list provides useful background reading, but for the latest-and-greatest writing on librarianship and digital humanities, please see dh+lib, a fantastic blog run by the DH Discussion Group of the Association of College and Research Libraries. You can also follow @DHandLib on Twitter. Digital Humanities and the Library. The digital humanities postdoc. In the last few years, I’ve noticed a certain kind of job ad appearing with more and more frequency.
I think of it as the “make digital humanities happen” postdoctoral fellowship. Often based in a library, these positions’ descriptions include some combination of “liaison,” “catalyst,” and “hub,” with a heavy dose of coordinator syndrome thrown in. The person is meant to generate enthusiasm for DH among faculty, perhaps serve as a consultant, and head up a new DH initiative. I do understand why a postdoc is attractive to institutions. They know that faculty like talking to people with Ph.D.s.They’re not sure they want to go all-in on DH, and thus the built-in term limits of the postdoc make sense.They want someone young and hungry, willing to take direction, with a lot of ideas and energy.Often, the source of funding for this position is insecure; perhaps it’s provided by a grant. Who gets to say what a postdoc is? Get the library to define your reporting and evaluation structure. The C-word. (The Loon is indebted to several Twitterfolk for this insight.)
Seasoned librarians often understand the politics, spoken and un-, of hiring and position creation. This is, of course, one good reason for library-school students to find librarian mentors as quickly as reasonable. (Nota bene, students: most of your professors are not and have never been working librarians! Find a working librarian!) In all fairness, though, libraries could sometimes do with being a bit more transparent about these things. Exempli gratia, the word “Coordinator” in a position title. The problem with these jobs is that as often as not, there’s nothing actually to coordinate. Oh, but the buck will stop with you, Coordinator, on all matters regarding your service. Why do libraries do this? As difficult as it is to establish a new position, changing job descriptions on existing positions is harder, and riskier for library administrators.
A third problem is not unique to librarianship: the “1. Centers Are People. Centers Are People. Bethany Nowviskie. An Idea Whose Time Has Come: The Virtues of Blogging as Scholarly Activity. April 29, 2012 / Martin Weller I have been an active blogger since 2006, and I often say that becoming one was the best decision I have ever made in my academic life.
In terms of intellectual fulfillment, creativity, networking, impact, productivity, and overall benefit to my scholarly life, blogging wins hands down. ... [B]logging tops the list because of its room for experimentation and potential to connect to timely intelligent debate. [snip]. My academic identity—I'm a professor of educational technology at the Open University in the United Kingdom—is strongly allied with my blog. [snip] This trend is evident in academic practice. In my book The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming Scholarly Practice (Bloomsbury USA, 2011; free online), I argue that if you look across all scholarly activities, the use of new technology has the potential to change practice. Scholars no longer need a television series to engage the public. The Humanities in a Digital Age (Northwestern University, April 23, 2012) Digital Humanities and Liberal Education.
Students at the RE: Humanities Conference Hosted by Bryn Mawr & Haverford Colleges While the digital humanities first found a home in public research institutions, we are seeing them more and more at small liberal arts colleges.
Why is that? How do the digital humanities fit with liberal education? To answer that question, we first need to define liberal education. In her article, “What’s So Liberal about Higher Ed?” The study of the liberal arts and sciencespedagogical methodology that emphasizes active learning, faculty/student collaboration, independent inquiry, and critical thinkingpreparation for democratic citizenship and civic engagement, including skills specifically believed to be central to effective citizenshipa specific institutional type — the small, residential, privately governed, bachelor’s granting college Artes Liberales Septem Artes Liberales by Flickr user Stefan Rimm Pedagogical Methodology Preparing Citizens Global Network by Flickr User WebWizzard Institutional type.