I attended the ACRL Digital Humanities Discussion Group during the American Library Association Annual Conference, which met at 4-5:30PM, on Sunday June 24, 2012.

Facilitated by Kate Brooks; (incoming head: Angela Courtney) there about 40-50 in attendance. (The ACRL Digital Humanities email list has over 500 subscribers.)

We went around the room for everyone introduced themselves, and mentioned their interest in digital humanities (hereafter DH) and why they came. In part this was to help determine the future direction of the group.

Some of the interesting projects mentioned were:

• A commons set up by the Modern Language Association
• A librarian involved the creation of an online multimedia book
• A librarian from UCLA noted that institution's 31^st year of offering a digital certificate. They have just recently opened an area for staff to participate in DH
• The University of Michigan plans to unveil a digital humanities project in October about the 1918 Influenza
• A joint project of the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Brooklyn Historical Society and Pratt University plans to explore the ways to showcase their digital photography project

While many attendee were able to mention projects at their institutions, other stated that they were present for in order to see what DH is about and learning more.

The agenda was based on responses to the questionnaire Kate sent out to the ARCL Digital Humanities email list: What do we understand DH and DH librarians to be? What are new directions for librarians to follow? Are they extensions of existing responsibilities?

How does a DH project begin? It's usually initiated by the faculty or students. The library or librarian is brought in at a later stage of the project. Librarians serve as the volunteers who can help shepherd the project through. They can function as facilitators. The library is one place where hierarchical status can be leveled and participants can be can equals.

It was noted that some faculty, used to dealing primarily with humanities, have a fear of technology. Some forbid students from consulting ebooks, or smart phones. They are very print-focused. Data, collaborations are new things to them. They can't see the value in (for example) text mining. All the more reason that a library is a natural home for the blending of humanities and technology. It is a space that fosters collaboration. Libraries are the ultimate connectors between faculty, students, IT, users – all parties involved in a DH project.

In the context of DH, the change in librarians' responsibilities was noted. It is a shift away from their area of subject expertise to an area that requires new skills. Prominent among these was the need for project management. Many participants in a DH project need someone with an overall view of the entire project, process, workflow, stakeholders, etc. and project management is one way to see the project to completion.

Is the word “digital” a term that fosters fragmentation? There was a perception that once the word “digital” was used, members of the institution felt a disconnect, a separation. The emphatic response was no, that DH should really be considered a part of humanities. DH is neither different nor separate.

Attendees clarified the difference between digitization (a transfer to a new format) and DH (how that new format is used).

Where are the standards in digitization? Documentation on best practices? It depends on the materials. Check out projects that you find similar. Many have documentation of their metholody and process as part of their website. Ask what are their tools, standards, etc.? (Do not be afraid to email them and ask how they did it.) Check out DigitalLibrary Federation, Nineteenth-Century Scholarship Online (NINES.org). TEI has a set of guidelines. (Developing a more comprehensive list of sources would be a useful project for the blog – see below.)

What are the challenges one faces with DH projects?  Some of them are:

• Reaching out to faculty
• Participating in DH projects
• Teaching in the library
• Institutions that don't have a DH department
• A project with no single DH person managing
• Not having dedicated staff

For dedicated DH librarians: how do you work with archivists, book groups, subject librarians, and other participants/stakeholders? One person mentioned a danger where some project initiator's enthusiasm will prompt them to imagine an expedited process that leaves out the library entirely (they'll be sorry later!). It shouldn't happen: Sooner or later the library is going to be involved (and most institutional staff will believe and want this.) [Remember the discussion above of the perception of the library was the unifier of disparate institutional communities.]

One librarian recalled what happened at his institution. He took on the role of project manager because it was the only way the proejct was going to get done. He created a DH group by bringing in people across the institution. He created a new workflow to see the project through and get it done. He observed that getting people on group made them have an investment in the project. Also important: a narrative of how it was implemented and done can be an important thing for tenure and for others who want to learn.

What should this ACRL DH group do? Should the group continue as a discussion group, or become an interest group. The differences: A discussion group is free form, open ended, no membership requirements (anyone can attend), but no financial support from ACRL. An interest group receives money from ARCL to assist with programing, for example, the presentation of papers. An interest group has to have at least 75 members, and goes for 3 years, after which the group is reviewed. Kate promised to poll the email list to see how they felt on whether to continue the group as a discussion group or move toward an interest group.

The blog. Recap: Based on conversations over the ACRL DH email list, it was felt that a platform using WordPress could be useful as a central place for the intersection of librarians and DH. The question currently before us: What do we want the blog to be? Some mentioned an aggregation function, although others were not interest in a site that was simply going to pull information from other sites. One idea was that it could be a site where people submit original content. Or it could be two site: one for announcements, and one for original content with editorial curation. People felt strongly that the ACRL DH email list has been a significant communication tool and that it should be maintained. There was some brainstorming on what path the site could take: It could be like http://Digitalhumanitiesnow.org, or it could be like ProfHacker (on the Chronicle of Higher Education). It could be a place where DH tools could be commented on as to their scope and usefulness, and providing documentation of various projects.

[The blog is being set up by Sarah Potvin, Roxanne Shirazi and Angela Courtney.]

Kate again promised to send out a survey over the email list to get an idea of what people envision.

The meeting closed with the final question: What should the blog be named.

It was an enthusiastic group and I'm interested to see what course it will take.  Bravo Kate and welcome, Angela!

More quiet than usual: Change

My public silence has been particularly pronounced due to an amazing change: My institution has set up internal blogs for the entire staff! Potentially that is over 2,000 people, not including communal accounts (most organizational units also have email accounts). So recently I've focused my blogging energy there, always intending to continue here as well.

On one hand, this is an amazing change. Staff is able to write about whatever they want, and these articles can be read by everyone in the institution. I've already "discovered" coworkers whom I've never heard of or encountered before, but who have worked there for many years (sometimes many decades). We are all beginning to feel comfortable in communicating with one another. To be sure, there is a long period during which people need to figure out how they can use their blog by exploring topics and focus. Some have written about mundane, personal, local matters (such as fixing copying machines) to broader issues that affect much of the staff (e.g. cataloging policies, and my own general thoughts on internal blogging). I eagerly look each morning to see what people have written. It's very exciting!

On another hand, of the probable 2,000+ employees, since June only 46 people have posted on their blogs. That's about 2.3% of the entire staff. (Of those 46, only 11 have more than 10 posts.) I find that surprisingly small, and have been wondering what is the reason.

It could be that staff is not technically proficient in all things web-related (i.e. Web or Library 2.0). Even though blogs (in general) have been around for years, I've heard coworkers state that they have read a blog for the first time only a few months ago. (It could be that they've been reading them all along without realizing that they were blogs.)

But there could be a larger issue. Change is a difficult thing to deal with. People become accustomed to doing the same thing and thinking in the same ways. What they do becomes tied up with their own personal identity. To get them to change can be a major hurdle because of these psychological issues. (That's why Change Management is a large aspect of life today -- from the individual level as in psychology up to leadership and management in the world today.)
(I have actually thought of taking coursework leading to a diploma in Change Management.)

When change is introduced at work, I sometimes hear coworkers murmuring that our duties are already so overloaded, and that taking on a new task just causes more stress. This would explain the antagonism toward change (even when the change is potentially helpful).

That could be part of the reason why my coworkers have not jumped at the chance to have a blog. One of the causes of depression is the feeling that one can not communicate with others. So a personal blog could be a step in the direction of alleviating staff cynicism or skepticism.

Personally speaking, I have come to recognize that one can not live in the past. Au contraire, to be happy and live well, one must actually embrace each day's challenges and rewards and engage them with vigor and energy, as if riding a surfboard over the waves of change. To be able to do this eventually gives one the skills of generally managing hurdles, obstacles and challenges that come in life (and boy, do they come).

So while I keep aware of these issues, I'm hoping that more of my coworkers will get on board with blogs. To that end, I feel that we, the bloggers, should gently push in that direction. One way of low-key proselytizing is through communication. Asking "Did you read X's blog today?" can be a way to motivate people to look at the blog site. Even better, at a recent staff meeting, I mentioned what I had read on someone's blog. When several people expressed interest, I repeated the URL of our internal site, and suggest they visit it for themselves and to consider getting one of their own.

Change is definitely in the air, and I sense that blogs are only the beginning.