Gilbert Heather - Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries

This volume was inspired by a conference held at the College of Charleston in June 2014. Many of the participants in that conference, Data Driven: Digital Humanities in the Library, are also contributors to this book; however, it is notable that the book is not the published proceedings of the conference. The essays compiled here are not simply expanded and refined versions of some of the conference presentations. Instead, they are largely a reflection of the informal conversations and serendipitous learning that truly made Data Driven a success. Many of the contributors were also presenters at the conference. Some of the volumes authors, such as Stewart Varner, attended the conference, but did not make a formal presentation. Others, such as Sarah Melton, were not in attendance, but were cited as influential in creating digital humanities (DH) scholarship in the library. Rather than attempting to provide little more than a transcript of the conference itself, Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries is an expanded discussion of the core themes that emerged from the conferencenamely, that the ways in which humanists organize and interact with their data is largely dependent on how that data is collected, described, and made available in academic libraries, archives, and museums.

DH practitioners utilize digital tools and innovative pedagogy to more deeply examine cultural, architectural, and historical records. A central theme of this volume is that archives, museums, and libraries provide much of the physical and virtual space where the digital humanities happen. Therefore, it follows that the institutions that house the artifacts, records, and digital assets that make many DH research projects possible should play a vital role in how that research is created and curated. It is with this in mind that we decided to change the title of the volume to reflect the central theme that emerged from the conferencethat, at many institutions, it is libraries and librarians that maintain DH infrastructures and make learning through the digital humanities possible. Even when libraries are not the campus home for DH centers, it is clear that their collecting, description, and access policies have a dramatic impact on digital humanists. It is also clear, as demonstrated by several contributions to this book, that librarians can play a significant role in undergraduate instruction in the digital humanities.

Laying the Foundation is not an attempt to define the nebulous boundaries of what does and does not constitute digital humanities. Although its authors address this debate, the volume is instead intended as a conversation starter among rank-and-file librarians about how and why librarians, archivists, and museum professionals should engage with digital humanists as full partners in both research and teaching. The authors of this volume do address the differences between DH and digital history, as well as many of the other epistemological debates raging at academic conferences, on blogs and other social media, and in the pages of refereed journals dedicated to DH scholarship. However, our primary objective is to encourage librarians to recognize, as Trevor Muoz so eloquently argues in , that DH scholarship is deeply rooted in and wholly compatible with library and archival science. Collectively, its authors argue that librarians are critical partners in DH instruction and inquiry and that libraries are essential for publishing, preserving, and making accessible digital scholarship.