News, Reports

Report: Digital Humanities, SPEC Kit 326, from Association of Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Digital Humanities, SPEC Kit 326, which provides a snapshot of research library experiences with digital scholarship centers or services that support the humanities (e.g., history, art, music, film, literature, philosophy, religion, etc.) and the benefits and challenges of hosting them. The survey asked ARL libraries about the organization of these services, how they are staffed and funded, what services they offer and to whom, what technical infrastructure is provided, whether the library manages or archives the digital resources produced, and how services are assessed, among other questions.

Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: Startups and the Digital Humanities

Just as THATCamp challenges attendees to set and steer the agenda, Startup Weekend leaves a lot up to the participants, who have 54 hours to pitch a product idea (typically tech-related), form teams, validate their idea, develop a business model, and put together a demo and a longer pitch.

Some might wonder what entrepreneurship training has to do with the digital humanities (DH), but I believe that the two communities have much in common and can learn from each other…. While DH projects typically don’t form companies and don’t aim to make a profit, most do need to consider how to define their value, find users and sustain themselves.

Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: Search Magic: Discovering How Undergraduates Find Information

Searching for information might seem like one of the most routine and commonplace activities of university life.  However, as students work within an information environment that is increasingly open and dynamically changing, research assignments also represent a complex and potentially daunting task, and one that is fraught with embedded social and cultural processes and relationships.

The Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) Project was a two-year study of student research practices involving a collaborative effort of five Illinois universities….  Using a mixed-methods approach that integrated nine qualitative research techniques and included over 600 participants, the ERIAL project sought to gain a better understanding of undergraduates’ research processes based on first-hand accounts of how they obtained, evaluated, and managed information for their assignments.

News, Resources

Resource: Webinar on Badge System Models and Design from the Digital Media and Learning Competition

Yesterday we held our second webinar of phase 2, “Badge System Models and Design.” It featured a great presentation by Carla Cassilli of Mozilla about the many considerations of designing an effective digital badge system. You can watch the video below, or at http://youtu.be/zCAy5weZyHc, and you can download the slides directly as a PDF right here.

Funding & Opportunities, News

Prize: UM Press/HASTAC Publication Prize in Digital Humanities

The University of Michigan Press Series in Digital Humanities and HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) are pleased to announce the UM Press/HASTAC Publication Prize in Digital Humanities. The prize, which is funded by the University’s Institute for the Humanities, will be awarded to two innovative and important projects that display critical and rigorous engagement in the field of Digital Humanities.

Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: Digital Humanities in the Library and Classroom, Presentations from CUNY Digital Humanities Initiative

The CUNY Digital Humanities Initiative has released video from two recent events:

Digital Humanities in the Library, November 18, 2011

  • Ben Vershbow (NYPL) on “NYPL Labs: Hacking the Library”

Digital Humanities in the Classroom, October 18, 2011

  • Mark Sample, “Building and Sharing When You’re Supposed to be Teaching”
  • Shannon Mattern, “Beyond the Seminar Paper: Setting New Standards for New Forms of Student Work”

Watch the videos here.