Report on “Defining Digital Humanities” lecture at Columbia

Today I went to the “Defining the Digital Humanities” lecture at Columbia University in New York City. It was a really interesting and thought provoking talk, and I thought it would be worth sharing with y’all.

Dan Cohen is a professor at George Mason University and Director of GMU’s Center for History and New Media.

The bulk of Cohen’s talk was on the variety of ways in which new technologies have aided the study of Humanities and allowed scholars new insights into their fields.  For example, through analysis of large bodies of knowledge, namely texts but also other media.

The example Cohen gave included a graph of how the use of the word “Christian”  in the titles of books decreased during the 19th century.  His point was that given a starting point like that, the researcher could then switch to a close reading to investigate for a possible language and cultural shift that could accompany the data.  To Cohen, aggregate data analysis is only one of the skills in a researcher’s toolbox, but one that allows researchers the ability to differentiate anecdotal evidence from overall trends. Cohen believes that the skills necessary to harness digital humanities will be taught/should be taught in graduate school along with, say,  paleography.

Other projects and technologies brought up by Cohen:

• Papers of the War Department – This represents the possibility of bringing together a large number of objects that are geographically dispersed into one database where they can be found more easily.   The Papers of the War project is meant to re-create the official documents of the War Department of the United States before its office and all its records burned in a fire.  The office’s papers can be mostly reconstructed because two copies were made of each document, one for the War Department and one for the recipient.  The database allows for research that previously had been prohibitively expensive, as large numbers of documents are available for analysis without having to track down every archive that possesses a document from the War Department.
• Omeka – a free, open source publishing platform that allows for easier remixing of data, such as plugging in a map to help analyze existing data and look for patterns.
• Born-digital media is very fragile but also can be very useful. It tends to be more useful or more managable in aggregate.  Example: President Johnson’s White House had 40,000 memos, President Clinton’s White House had 4 million electronic memos.  It is impossible to go through 4 million memos using traditional means.
• Zotero - a favorite of Columbia staff – possesses the ability to strip semantic data from the web to help users deal with the heterogeneous mixture of media and data present on the web.
• Scholarly Communication is a field that can benefit greatly through the application of digital humanities.   Cohen encourages his graduate students to blog and create a web presence.  Blogs and other social media are useful because  they allow for a more interdisciplinary conversation.  Cohen also recommends The New Everyday, that is, a media outlet for short essays (1000-2000 words) and multimedia,  and
• Twitter can be very useful, because of its ability to quickly query a large number of people for hard-to-research information.  Jay Rosen at NYU’s School of Journalism uses Twitter to run a “flying seminar” what over 50,000 people follow.
• Digital Humanities Now

Federica Frabetti is a professor of Communication, Media and Culture at the UK’s Oxford Brookes University. Most of her talk seems to be taken from this article.

Her presentation primarily focused on a humanities analysis of technology, and the ways in which the humanities can be critical of and shape technology.

Increasingly, the digital humanities is stabilizing and increasingly being embedded in the University, becoming part of the discourse about universities when universities are increasingly multinational and in crisis.  This is problematic because given humanities’ intimate ties with universities, they run the risk of becoming part of the greater discourse on higher education.  The field of digital humanities is also solidifying in a way that is problematic.

Frabetti pointed out that globalization itself requires the innovation from digitization to make itself financially feasible.

She cites Gary Hall from Culturemachine.net, asking the question of what humanities can bring to the study of computer science and how hey can shape technological development.  Frabetti calls on humanities scholars to not only understand how to use software, but also to understand how it works and analyze how software shapes the human being.   She also goes on to discuss the writings of Stiegler and Tim Clark (from Deconstructions: A User’s Guide), namely that Western thought is based on the Aristotelian idea of separating technical knowledge from epistemology, and that tools do not shape the person who wields them.  This is of course problematic given that increasingly we feel like we have created Frankenstein’s Monster, that the technology that we have created is increasingly affecting us in negative ways.

As a parable, Frabetti brings up the novel, The Turing Option in which the protagonist, Delany has a computer installed in a part of the brain he lost in an accident.  Delaney must then relearn all that he had previously learned.  Ultimately, however, Delaney finds that he can never reconstruct the brain he once had; there is no way to reconstruct his original self.  This story brings to light a process that is always happening in humans: we are always reconstructing our brains and changing our minds.

Frabetti questions the assumption about the instrumentality and rationality at the core of digitization.  There is a gap between technology and language, and there needs to be space for self-reflexive digital humanities.  Also, it is necessary to examine universities’ role in digital creation, given their increasing political significance.

Dino Buzzetti is formerly a professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Bologna. The article on which his talk is based can be found in Project Muse.

Buzzetti follows in Manfred Thaller’s footsteps in saying that the purpose of computer science is to create algorithms and systems, but for digital humanities, these algorithms and systems must be built around the disciplines they wish to incorporate.

The digital wishes to create a simulation of the text it presents.

Can visual representations of data replace reading and reflection?

With knowledge representations, tools can create new relationships with the text.

This problem can be solved through the unification of Web 2.0, the Semantic Web and Digital Libraries to form Semantic Digital Libraries.

Help Guide ARLIS/NA for the Next 5 Years!

Just a reminder — only one week left to sign up!

The Strategic Planning Committee is specifically targeting ArLiSNAP to provide feedback that will impact the future of the society! Please consider taking part in the ArLiSNAP Focus Group:

Tuesday, April 12 3:00 – 4:00pm

To sign up please contact Barbara Rockenbach, barbara.rockenbach [at] yale [dot] edu

ArLiSNAP Housekeeping and Updates

Hi all,

You’ll probably notice a few changes in the coming weeks as we refresh the blog’s look and functionality. Suzanne and myself will be working hard to incorporate new streams of information and useful resources into the site in order to help you find more jobs, more educational opportunities, and more discussion within the art librarian community.

Things will be a bit jumpy as all the pieces settle into place but hopefully the ArLiSNAP site will emerge with a renewed sense of dedication and exploration, along with a bit of visual flair.

As always, we are looking for contributors and participants. If you’re interested, email us! And speaking of email, Suzanne will be sending out a call for specific point people to help with postings, webmaster responsibilities, and discussion coordinators. Keep your eyes open for that and stay in touch with suggestions for how we can better serve you.

Cheers,

Rosemary K. J. Davis
ArLiSNAP Co-Coordinator 2010-2012

ARLIS/NA Seeking ArLiSNAP Input!

The Strategic Planning Committee would once again like to thank those who responded to the survey on the proposed goals and objectives. We had an amazing number (160) of members respond. If you are interested in seeing that feedback and the resulting revised draft of the Goals and Objectives, please visit http://www.arlisna.org/organization/com/stratplan/index.html. For those of you attending the Annual Conference next week, a strategic planning report and Q & A is scheduled during the Membership meeting.

To gather more feedback, the Strategic Planning Committee will be holding five virtual focus group meetings. We would like to invite you to participate in helping the Strategic Planning Committee finalize the strategic goals and initiate an action plan. You may have already offered your feedback via the survey. We would now like to speak with you in more detail about the feedback we have received. Your involvement will require only one hour of time to participate on a conference call along with eight to ten of your peers during the week of April 11-15 or April 18-22.

Two focus groups will be targeted to ArLiSNAP and to our Liaisons to Affiliated Organizations. Those sessions will be held:

ArLiSNAP Tuesday, April 12  3:00 – 4:00pm

Liaisons  Thursday, April 14  3:00 – 4:00pm

To sign up for one of these sessions please contact Barbara Rockenbach, barbara.rockenbach [at] yale [dot] edu

ArLiSNAP Supporters, THANK YOU!

Dear ArLiSNAPers,

Thank you so much for showing your support of ArLiSNAP’s drive to become a petition!  Your active participation and comments are humbling & inspiring.  We look forward to speaking with you at this year’s conference and collaborating with you throughout the year.

Sincerely,

Bryan Loar & Rosemary Davis

Shop ArLiSNAP!

Look clever & snappy with ArLiSNAP gear.

A number of members have asked where they can find ArLiSNAP gear.  Well, the answer is at

http://www.cafepress.com/arlisnap

We have t-shirts, buttons, bags, & more.  All the items are sold at cost.  So, the prices are the absolute lowest.  Happy shopping

ArLiSNAP Annual Report 2010

Annual Report 2010

Art Library Students and New ARLIS Professionals (ArLiSNAP)
Submitted by Co-Moderators

The ArLiSNAP special interest group continued to innovate over the last year.  From outreach to new and existing ARLIS/NA members to various initiatives created in response to ArLiSNAP member desires, ArLiSNAP continues to position itself as an indispensable resource for art library students and new professionals.

At the 2010 annual ArLiSNAP meeting, coordinators Bryan Loar and Tracy Bergstrom solicited member feedback via a paper-based survey.  The survey was also posted online using a Google document form.  In 2011, the survey will be given again by Bryan Loar and Rosemary Davis, and there will be an emphasis on timely analysis.

In response to suggestions at the 2010 meeting, ArLiSNAP moved their presence on Facebook from a group to a page.  By doing so, ArLiSNAP automated the redistribution of blog postings to Facebook.  While Facebook’s native RSS feed import within Notes proved challenging, the use of RSS Graffiti solved importing issues and allowed ArLiSNAP coordinators to track statistics.  ArLiSNAP sent a message to the group’s members two weeks before the group’s closure indicating the need to join (i.e. “like”) the new page.  The new page was promoted on ArLiSNAP’s blog and ARLIS-L, and the effort grew the number of members by over 50.

This year’s annual ArLiSNAP meeting will be historic. On Sunday, March 27, ArLiSNAP will hold a joint meeting with student and new professional members of the VRA.  The meeting will be a forum for students and young professionals to talk about the problems, plans, and pleasures of the academic and professional worlds.  The joint meeting will give members of both organizations the opportunity to discuss potential collaborations between art librarians and visual resource curators.  So that the VRA members may solidify their own group, ArLiSNAP will also share best practices.  ArLiSNAP will also query participants to determine what kinds of new services, events, and educational opportunities are most important to emerging and developing professionals.

In 2011, ArLiSNAP initiated the process to transition from a special interest group to a section.  By becoming a section, ArLiSNAP will further solidify its incorporation into the Society and be empowered to provide a greater number of resources for its constituency.  In order to petition the transition in March, ArLiSNAP will solicit at least 30, hand-written signatures from current ARLIS/NA members at the joint VRA + ARLIS/NA conference.  Additionally, as an act of solidarity, ArLiSNAP will offer ARLIS/NA members an unofficial, online petition through Care2’s thepotitionsite.com.  Currently, online petitions are not supported by ARLIS/NA bylaws; however, the Board will be reviewing this policy in the upcoming 2011-2012 term.

ArLiSNAP has again supported the New Voices in the Profession session at VRA + ARLIS/NA’s annual conference. The New Voices panel is a truly collaborative effort this year–it features the Gerd Museham Award winners from 2010 and 2011, a speaker chosen by the Education Subcommittee of the VRA, and a fourth presenter chosen by the ARLIS/NA Professional Development subcommittee and ArLiSNAP.   Rosemary Davis worked with Maggie Portis, Assistant Librarian at the New York School of Interior Design, to review essays submitted by students and young professionals from all over the country.  The chosen speaker, Kathryn Pierce, is an IMLS Preservation Fellow, at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.  She will present a paper entitled, “You Need More Fingers Than Ten: Collaborating to Document Architectural Practice”.  ArLiSNAP looks forward to participating in the panel selection again next year and highlighting emerging stars in the field.

Touchpoints with new and renewing members continued to play a key role in solidifying ArLiSNAP’s presence within ARLIS/NA.  As a result of notifications sent by TEI to Bryan Loar regarding those members interested in ArLiSNAP, the group was able to significantly raise awareness of ArLiSNAP through our standardized email response.  In all, over 300 responses were sent out, prompting additional dialogue with a number of ARLIS/NA members.

The feasibility of being hosted by TEI, ARLIS/NA’s management company, was further investigated.  Bryan Loar, also ArLiSNAP’s Senior Site Administrator, has been in contact with TEI’s management, and he was told in 2010 that hosting WordPress was not feasible due to TEI’s IIS servers.  However, In February, 2011, one of the senior members of TEI indicated that recent upgrades may allow WordPress.  Bryan will continue to research in March and report to ArLiSNAP members.

ArLiSNAP has again provided resources for first-time conference attendees.  ArLiSNAP’s conference survival guide wiki (http://snapconference.pbworks.com) was updated with new graphics and content related to the joint VRA & ARLIS/NA conference in Minneapolis.  It is hoped that corresponding brochures will be distributed at the conference’s First Time Attendee Orientation as well as through the information desk near registration.

ArLiSNAP also organized the conference pub stop, now in its 6th year.  This year’s location is still to be determined.  Promotional graphics were designed by Bryan Loar, and the event was publicized on ARLISN/NA’s Facebook page, VRA’s Facebook page, and on ArLiSNAP at http://arlisnap.org/2011/02/24/arlisnap-pub-stop-2011.

ArLiSNAP Site Statistics as of Monday, February 28, 2011
Total Unique Members: 107
Average Site Hits per Day 2010: 89
Total Site Hits for the Year 2010: 32,422
Total Average RSS Feed Subscribers from WordPress and Feedburner: 157
Total Email Subscribers from WordPress and Feedburner: 72