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.

News, Resources

Resource: The Marriage of Standards and Access: Centralized Services as a Tool for Collaboration, Publication and Curation

By Elijah Meeks

…This is fundamentally an argument directed at administrators looking to support digital humanities work at their universities and not researchers looking to perform digital humanities work, but it is meant to push that latter group toward agitating for action from the former. I’ve had enough experience now with digital humanities projects to know that when you’re collaborating with computer scientists or contracting developer resources without a sense of standardized, centralized resources, then the data, code and tool decisions tend to be made based on expediency or a desire to experiment with new, unsupported and/or experimental technologies.

Funding & Opportunities, News

Opportunity: Announcing the UM Press/HASTAC Publication Prize in Digital Humanities

In conjunction with the University of Michigan’s hosting of the 2011 international HASTAC V conference on Digital Scholarly Communication and recentlaunch of the University of Michigan Press Series in Digital Humanities, the Press 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.

News, Resources

Resource: Teaching DH 101: Introduction to the Digital Humanities

NITLE Event: Teaching DH 101: Introduction to the Digital Humanities.

December 16, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Seminar organizers encourage faculty, instructional technologists, librarians, and others interested in digital scholarship, digital humanities, and related projects to attend this seminar in institutional teams if possible. This seminar will be especially interesting to those interested in how to teach digital humanities to undergraduates. (Times EST)

News, Resources

Resource: Database of Bookbindings

This database is a finding aid to the British Library’s bookbinding collections. It includes information and images for selected items from the Library’s rich collection of fine bindings of books printed in western Europe from the fifteenth century to date. There is also a selection from the valuable bookbindings collections of the Library’s partner, the National Library of the Netherlands. The database is a work in progress and its scope will be widened as resources allow.

via The British Library – Database of Bookbindings – Default

News, Reports

Report: Diversity of Access to Digital Preservation Collections; first results from the NDSA Storage Survey

What are the access requirements for digital cultural heritage collections? This was one of the questions that the National Digital Stewardship Alliance started exploring earlier this year. Different access requirements result in very different kinds of preservation storage systems, and the NDSA Infrastructure working group wanted to know more about the kinds of requirements that are in place for its members’ collections.