Thanks to Zach Coble, a Google Doc was created during our Library as Publisher Maker session during ACRL 2013. And thanks to all of you who participated in our lively discussion, we put those thoughts to paper in this Google Doc.  It was refreshing to have the bones of a document to take back to work built with the wisdom of the group. After the session, I was lucky enough to make some edits and talk through some additional issues with J Whyte Appleby. The doc is still in progress and I encourage interested parties in contributing their thoughts. Thanks again to all who participated. I am looking forward to road testing these talking points in the months to come.

Following up from the One Hour session…

The idea was to take the hour, make something tangible, and learn a new skill quickly.

We decided to make an ebook on the topic of DH and Libraries, pulling content from Miriam Posner’s bibliography on the topic. There were a few hang-ups along the way (downloading Calibre, iPad users had to pair with those who had laptops, some formatting and wonky file saving issues) but triumphing over all, we succeeded.

Our process:

1. Find HTML/Text version of the content
2. Copy
3. Paste to word processor (Word and GDocs were used)
4. Format for content headings, hyperlinks
5. Save as .htm
6. Import to Calibre
7. Edit metadata
8. Export as EPUB

I went around and collected the .htm files from most groups, and then did the extra step of meshing them all into one .htm file (copy/paste/reformat), for the purpose of spitting out one EPUB file of ALL the collected works. The final product is below:

•  DH and Libraries EPUB
• DH and Libraries MOBI
• DH and Libraries PDF
• DH and Libraries RTF

 Challenges:

• Copyright – we decided that our use is transformative and are claiming fair use or relying on Creative Commons licenses of the original works. Several of the works, published in the most traditional journals, we simply skipped over so as not to deal with it right away.
• Workflow – the reformatting of the documents is what ends up taking the most time. Also, several people experimented with hand coding the HTML, and for some reason it didn’t translate when saved as .htm. Automating some of the simpler tasks might be a future project for someone to take on.
• Tools – Calibre may not be best tool for this. It has a bunch of features that we didn’t take the time to work through that would probably make the ebooks work better. A continuation of this session might explore other tools using the same content and process.
• Formatting – after fiddling around with the text for a while I still can’t seem to get the formatting right when moving from .doc to .htm to .epub. Something changes in translation that overlaps and makes the formatting look dumb.

Opportunities:

• In less than an hour, 15-20 people experimented with modifying content to meet different  information needs. Win.
• Reusing openly licensed data(text) is good for the (open)environment.
• The product is an expanded accessible version of the source content.
• This is a small step and example of the direction of “library publishing” that was also discussed at THATCamp ACRL.
• We only got through about 5 articles on the bibliography! More to do! Here’s the .htm file and the Word doc so you can continue to add more!

Thanks to all who attended and participated in THATCamp ACRL. We had a great time, and hope you did too.

Please feel free to continue to use this space as long as necessary to post notes, reflect on our sessions, and/or reference the work we did.

Last minute housekeeping stuff:

• Please take a second to fill out this survey about your experience at THATCamp.
• Consider submitting your follow-up posts, session notes or projects to the THATCamp Bibliography.

Thanks again! See you in 2015!

Thanks to all who participated in our discussion and practice for the digital storytelling session.

Notes: docs.google.com/document/d/18r4qRoqHVk7X0XNI9xm8mt0IcQ7oYRJjtFTh51iEJg/edit

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/jomcleay/digitalstorytelling-13216936

Notes from the discussion of the function (or lack thereof) of the Socractic method in web-based reference and education can be found by clicking here.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

I started a google doc for DH101: Getting Started in Digital Humanities. It’s open for editing at

docs.google.com/document/d/1f8noiuNmQ_ejzo0aRu_u7JGevdSCKWAn8CuZGzN9Y4A/edit?usp=sharing

Session attendees please add your notes for everyone to access.

Thanks!

I’m interested in developing online spaces for (mostly undergrad) students to access throughout university careers. Many libraries have subject research guides online, but I’m thinking of a more interactive space which students can access as needed to supplement research instruction, learn about and discuss digital tools in their disciplines, plus [your activity idea here].

Has anyone developed these types of communities (library-based or based on majors, interdisciplinary programs)? What platforms are best for hosting these types of communities? What is the role of the community builders (librarians, subject faculty): facilitator, guide on side, info provider, discussion leader, respond to questions?

How can students be encouraged to participate? Would they participate?

I’d welcome any responses to these questions here on the blog even if we don’t have this as a session today.

I’m interested in discussing ideas for providing alternative service learning assignments/components in the classroom.

I have a social science, environmental studies background, and I’ve used and taught GIS. Recently, I’ve been interested in more user friendly mapping tools such as Google Earth. I’m curious if/how Geospatial tools fit into DH. My school is just starting a big DH initiative.

In this session I would like to create a list of resources libraries can use to quickly and inexpensively build digital projects. There are so many tools out there and more are being created all the time but it is sometimes hard to know where to start.

The goal is to create a toolbox, targeted at libraries, which will live online and be updated by the community. There is already Bamboo Dirt (dirt.projectbamboo.org/) which is a great resource so it is worth considering how this project might relate to that one.

These are some thoughts that have been spinning through my head since I did half of my MLIS online, and my work in libraries and as an online writing coach since then has made then spin faster.

Think about a typical reference desk, f2f transaction. Now think about a chat reference transaction. Think about a typical conversation on a social media platform, and about a typical conversation in an online classroom’s discussion board.

All of these seem like good places for the Socratic method, a time-honored tool of philosophy and education, to be used, and in some of them people work very hard to employ it. They definitely not equally successful, though. Why do responses become monosyllabic or angry or simplistic so quickly in online environments? How much of this is due to the environment, and how much is maybe just due to human nature? What could we do to make our conversations more Socratic?

P.S. Apologies for anything weird in here. I’ve never posted to WordPress from my phone before…I hope there weren’t any crazy spelling errors! I’ll try to double-check this on my laptop when I have internet tomorrow.

I cannot speak for other participants, but I am somewhat intimidated by all the tools, technologies, and projects that fall under digital humanities. The question I have is: how do I get involved? What technologies do I need to know? How do I convince stakeholders in my library that DH has value? I am sure that other newbies to DH have similar questions.

Ideally, participants would be a mix of newbies (such as myself) and people with more experience in DH. I have no set agenda in mind except as a come-and-go-as-you-please seminar/discussion format. If anyone has any suggestions to make the most out of this proposal, please e-mail me at barobinson2@fsu.edu.

This is a talk session, co-proposed by Alana Kumbier, Kelly McElroy, and Lydia Willoughby.

 We’re interested in identifying ways in which academic librarians can support projects to diversify DH. Some of our framing questions include:

• How do we connect our skills and knowledges with projects that originate within the academy as well as in our communities?

• How do we help students, faculty and staff discover projects & resources that represent diverse experiences, histories, and modes of cultural production? What can we do to connect our patrons with online digital collections of radical, queer, POC, alternative press materials (contemporary & historic)?

• How can we help eliminate barriers to access for people who want to create DH projects?

• How can we design adaptive and accessible systems that foster community use of technology for users with diverse digital literacies?

• How can we help ensure that DH projects are accessible, aware of multiple ontologies, accountable to communities being documented, and open to participation?

• What great resources, projects, or collectives do we know about that we’d like to share with others?

• What ways can we collaborate with partners and key community stakeholders to promote, market and fund our DH projects?

• Do we want to form a working group, identify a project we could work on together?

Our proposal is motivated by (and builds upon) calls to create DH projects that draw on a set of critical theoretical and activist genealogies that include:

• Queer theory & activism

• Critical race theory and anti-racist theory & activism

• Indigenous studies & activism

• Feminist theory & activism

• Disability studies & activism, and

• Postcolonial studies

These calls have been articulated by a number of groups, in different contexts. Online, we can see evidence of this work in sites created by the #transformDH Collective, from NITLE discussion of Women’s Studies, Gender Studies & DH, by #DHPoco (a Postcolonial Digital Humanities project), THATCamp Feminisms West and THATCamp Feminisms East, and the Diversity in DH discussion at THATCamp SoCal 2011.

Wanted: a group of individuals interested in digital humanities and libraries to serve as acquisitions editors for one hour.

The project: dh+lib wants to host a series of posts that will move forward the conversation surrounding digital humanities and libraries, but we need your help picking a theme. What questions have gone unanswered that need to be? Is there a topic that could be more fully developed? What would make your job easier (at least the part that’s related to DH)? Who could contribute to this series?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be blog posts – are there resources that would make your job easier, or more interesting, but don’t yet exist?

Come tell us what ideas you would like to see discussed, and help shape the future path of dh+lib.

Co-proposed with Melanie Schlosser, Digital Publishing Librarian, Ohio State University, and Stewart Varner, Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Emory University.

Libraries are becoming increasingly involved in publishing in new and interesting ways (see, for example, the Amherst College Press and the Library Publishing Coalition). As more libraries get involved in publishing or look to increase their efforts in this area, we are faced with many new questions. For example, how do you balance the need for mission-driven publishing using traditional outputs (e.g. journals and monographs) with an interest in experimental publishing? Will library publishing efforts be most successful by focusing untapping niche markets or other areas? Many university publishers are starting short form ebook series (see Princeton Shorts, UNC Press Shorts, and Stanford Briefs) and other such experiments in content size – what is the “right size” for academic scholarship?

Come join us to discuss these questions and more. Are you doing library publishing at your institution? Tell us what’s worked well and what are the current challenges you’re facing.

Registration for THATCamp ACRL 2013 is now open! Click here, fill out the webform, and you should receive an email when your registration is approved.

A quick note about the purpose of registration – typically most THATCamp’s put a cap on registrations, so that the conversation and event space do not get overwhelmed. Since we are hosting THATCamp as part of the ACRL conference, we have an alternate goal in asking attendees to “register” here. As our THATCamp will be open to any and all conference participants, the purpose of registration is to get a sense of how many of you are committing (to some degree) that you really, really are planning to show up and participate. Also, registering will give you access to this WordPress site, where you will propose sessions, and interact with other Campers before and after the event.

So, come one, come all! But, if you want to get fully into the THATCampery, please take the time to register, fill out a profile, and propose a session. We want to make this a valuable experience for you, by you!

We’re happy to announce that there will be a THATCamp unconference as part of the programming at ACRL2013! The details will be published here as we work them out. Meanwhile, read more about the THATCamp movement and browse other THATCamps at thatcamp.org.

We especially encourage you to click through Miriam Posner’s comprehensive reading list of articles relating to Digital Humanities and Libraries. Hopefully some of the topics she highlights there will inspire the conversations we’ll have at ACRL2013.

Also, we are very thankful to Microsoft Research for providing support and funding for our THATCamp.

– Brought to you by The ACRL Innovations Committee