DHNow

Author: DH Now

Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: Open Access and Post-Disciplinarity

I’m always surprised when I hear people attack open access publishing. There are no rational arguments as to why print based texts and journals are superior to open access texts, but there are plenty of rational reasons for open access publishing. Some seem to think that open access publications are less reputable and should count less towards tenure. Personally I think if you’re writing and speaking for tenure you might be in the wrong line of work, but that’s another matter. Such people seem to forget that Harvard went open access back in 2008. Perhaps Harvard is a second rate institution, but that seems like a difficult case to make. All that should matter is the peer review process. Are the editors qualified to peer review the material handed

By: DH Now
News, Reports

Report: The European Commission Recommendation on Digitisation and Digital Preservation

The Recommendation asks Member States to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve private actors in digitising cultural material and making it available through Europeana.

In particular, the Recommendation invites Member States to put in place solid plans for their investments in digitisation, make available through Europeana 30 million objects by 2015, get more in-copyright material online, and reinforce their strategies and adapt their legislation to ensure long-term preservation of digital material.

By: DH Now
Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: Building Topic Models through Selective Document Exclusion

Earlier this month, I attended the ASIS&T 2011 Annual Meeting where, much to my delight, the paper I co-authored with Miles Efron and Katrina Fenlon was selected for the Best Paper Award.

In Building Topic Models in a Federated Digital Library through Selective Document Exclusion, we presented a way to improve the coherence of algorithmically derived topical models.

The work stems from topic modeling we were doing, first with PLSA and later LDA, on our IMLS DCC research group. The system we are working with brings together cultural heritage content from over a thousand institutions and, as a result contains quite diverse and often problematic metadata.

By: DH Now
News, Reports

Report: Linked Data for Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Survey and Workshop Report

In June 2011, Stanford University hosted a group of librarians and technologists to examine issues and challenges surrounding the use of linked data for library applications. This report summarizes the activities and discussions that took place during the workshop, describes what came out of the workshop, outlines next steps identified by the participants, and provides contextual and background information, including preliminary reports and biographies of workshop participants. The workshop report was produced and edited by the participants and staff at Stanford University Libraries.

By: DH Now
News, Resources

Resource: Visualize a network of film casts and crews

Is there a way I can visualize the overlapping networks of people within a culture?” There is! To demonstrate, I’ll use the last dozen films of one of my favorite filmmakers, Alfred Hitchcock. This is a fun way to get started making network visualizations.

By: DH Now
News, Reports

Report: Developing the digital humanities at the Open University: progress report

In June 2011 the Open University Senate recognized Digital Humanities as one of two new University Thematic Research Networks, and it was launched at a colloquium on 8 July. During the coming months we plan to develop collaborative activity across the University, with a particular emphases on exploring how the use of digital technologies is shaping the research process, and on their potentialities for enhancing our mission of ‘openness’ in research.  Appointment of a Research Associate who will play a leading role in taking this process forward is currently underway. In the meantime for details of the ongoing programme of workshops and seminars, please see the Events page.

By: DH Now