Digital Libraries and Digital Humanities at SLIS and IU
John A. Walsh

Digital Libraries

  • One definition: A focused collection of digital objects, including text, video, images, audio, and data sets, along with methods for access and retrieval, and for selection, organization, and maintenance of the collection (modified slightly from Witten and Bainbridge, How to Build a Digital Library, 2003).
  • Another: “A library in which collections are stored in digital formats (as opposed to print, microform, or other media) and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks” ("Digital Library", Wikipedia).
  • Like physical libraries, digital libraries are supported by an infrastructure of technologies and people; digital libraries are not just about the technology. Not all careers in digital libraries are explicitly “technical”.

Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities is a discipline that studies the use of information and communication technologies in the creation and analysis of humanities data, including literary texts, historical data, the visual arts, music, and so on. Digital Humanities can involve the creation of digital thematic research collections (e.g., the Rossetti Archive http://www.rossettiarchive.org/ or the Blake Archive http://www.blakearchive.org/), the development of tools for the analysis and visualization of humanities data, the study of the evolution of the book in the age of the internet and new media, or the study of the impact of digital tools and resources on the nature of humanities scholarship.

Careers

  • Researchers/Scholars/Educators
  • Administrators (project development, budgeting, grant-writing, etc.)
  • Project Managers
  • Metadata Experts
  • Usability Experts and Interface Designers
  • Web Developers
  • Programmers and Systems Analysts
  • Digitization and Imaging Specialists
  • Systems Administrators

Digital Library Specialization at SLIS

Skills, Knowledge, and Expertise that are useful for Digital Library Work

  • Collection Development
  • Programming
  • Web Design and Development
  • Graphic Design
  • Grant-Writing
  • Usability/HCI
  • Copyright
  • XML and related standards
  • Systems Architecture
  • Organization and Representation of Information
  • Database
  • Metadata theory and standards (e.g., Dublin Core, METS, MODS, TEI, EAD, RDF)
  • Search Engines and Text Indexing
  • Interface Design
  • Digitization Standards and Formats for various media types (text, image, audio, video)
  • And more…

Resources

Local Lectures and Discussion Groups

Additional Technology Training

UITS offers a number of “STEPS” workshops on various technologies relevant to digital libraries and digital humanities. These workshops are free to students and a great way to supplement your course work and training in SLIS. UITS also offers certifications, which can look good on a résumé. Example workshops include:
  • XHTML: The Basics
  • XHTML: Structure & Description
  • XHTML: Web Forms
  • Cascading Style Sheets: The Basics
  • Cascading Style Sheets: Layout & Design
  • Perl: The Basics
  • CGI: The Basics
  • vi: Unix Text Editing
 More details may be found at: http://ittraining.iu.edu/workshops/

Getting Started

  • Start building web pages and learn about XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. Do this on your own, not just in classes, and start now establishing a Web-based portfolio of work.
  • Follow the relevant mailing lists and articles in D-Lib and other relevant journals.
  • Read online tutorials and introductions about XML, METS, MODS, Dublin Core, RDF, EAD, TEI, VRA Core, and other relevant standards.
  • Seek internship opportunities with IU Digital Library Program or with digital projects at the Lilly Library, IU Archives, other units on campus, and local institutions.
  • Attend brownbags and lectures listed above. Ask questions and get to know the people giving the talks. This will help when you apply for internships or local jobs with these people. And you'll learn stuff.