This month Ithaka released this report: supporting-the-changing-research-practices-of-historians. I would be interested discussing how this report may act a springboard for winder discussions on the role of libraries and archives (henceforth just using libraries) and those who staff these institutions.

My interest comes from three different concerns. I am  the librarian responsible for most of the topics covered at NYU’s Department of History (along with a few other departments).  I am on the board of the International Association of Labour History Institutions, a group of research institutions,  predominantly European and of varying sizes, that focus on social history.  And last and closely tied to the previous two, I am working historian who has published a work in print and a significantly enhanced version digitally.

My talk proposal is related to but somewhat different than Mary-Allen Johnson’s post.  I am more interested in discussing the future role(s) of the library in historical scholarship.  Where is it collaborative and where is it supportive.

andrew

I am in the early stages of designing an undergraduate honors tutorial in digital humanities and a graduate level, interdisciplinary research course with a focus on digital tools (both courses will be offered in Fall 2013).  I would like to propose a conversation about constructing undergraduate and a graduate level introductory digital humanities courses. What class projects work for ug/gr students? What texts resonate with students? How do you engage non-majors in humanities scholarship? Best practices? Realistic learning objectives?

Thanks,

Katherine O’Flaherty

@katherineofl

stillwaterhistorians.com

THATCamp AHA 2013
Talk proposal

As I prepare to head to East Asia for several months of dissertation research, I’ve been considering the challenges of adapting my citation management tools for use in the Chinese-language archives in which I’ll be working. Along these lines, I’d like to propose a discussion of the particular digital needs of historians working in non-Western languages. Such a discussion might include some of the following topics:

-What are the relative strengths of extant citation management applications in their handling of non-Western scripts?
-What solutions have been created for the integration, manipulation, and searching of scripts and transliterations within database records?
-What possibilities exist for incorporating OCR and other digitization techniques into a paperless research workflow for non-Western languages?
-How might historians working in non-Western scripts more effectively use the digital humanities tools that already exist, and how might future versions of these tools be of greater use to us?

We might also consider composing a critical summary of this session for circulation among a wider community of historians and open source developers.

What are the pros and cons, the means and obstacles, of keeping an open-access research notebook in the humanities?

In an 2008 roundtable on digital history, historian William G. Thomas envisioned a future in which websites would serve as "open research platforms where scholars can stage problems and continually modify their work, readers can view the research as it develops, and both can continually assemble new associations as an interpretive model is built." But as Lisa Spiro has recently noted in her series on "opening the humanities" (Part 1 and Part 2), this idea has not yet really taken hold in the humanities.

The idea of open research notebooks has made more headway in science; for one example, see the Open Lab Notebook kept by Carl Boettiger. And some of the benefits promised by the open science movement—like the freeing of "dark data" often lost in the publication process—seem like they would be applicable to humanistic disciplines like history as well. Keeping open research notebooks might also be one way to respond to the series of challenges to scholarship in a wikified world that AHA president William Cronon has outlined.

Nonetheless, there are challenges—technical and otherwise—to the idea of open research notebooks in the humanities. Andrew J. Berger has recently outlined only a few. The challenges and questions surrounding this idea are also not exactly the same as those that surround the idea of open-access publication, where discussion tends to center on issues like evaluation, promotion, and peer review. Those issues aren’t precisely the same ones raised by the idea of "open lab" notebooks kept by historians.

I have recently begun an open research notebook experiment of my own by beginning an online research wiki. I am interested in a talk session with other THATcampers interested in thinking how the open attitude might change the way research notes are kept and managed. What are the technical best practices for this kind of project? Will its benefits be limited if these experiments are too isolated from the discipline as a whole?

I’m open (pun intended!) to other versions of these questions or this session!

As Amanda noted, THATCamp AHA participants will check in at the Nottoway room at the Sheraton New Orleans (500 Canal Street)  at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 3.

Those of you who are registered for the AHA meeting should note that AHA registration opens at noon on Thursday, so you won’t be able to pick up your AHA badge before attending THATCamp. Registration, located across the street in the New Orleans Marriott’s Mardi Gras Ballroom, is open until 7 p.m. Thursday evening so you will be able to pick up your AHA badge immediately afterward.

Best,

Debbie Doyle

American Historical Association

The second THATCamp AHA is drawing near: it will take place on Thursday 1/3 at the Sheraton New Orleans. We’ve got almost 50 participants — see who’s coming at aha2013.thatcamp.org/participants/ and log in to update your own profile information if you like (click “Lost your password?” if you need to). You can upload a profile picture at gravatar.com.

Now is also the time to start thinking about what you’d like to do or discuss at THATCamp AHA. From now till THATCamp AHA begins, you can propose one or more session ideas by logging in to the site, clicking Posts –> Add New, writing out your idea, then clicking “Publish” to post your idea on the site where we can all see and discuss it. See aha2013.thatcamp.org/propose/ for more information about how and what you might propose, not to mention a little bit of explanation about why things work this way at THATCamp. We’d particularly like to encourage “Make” sessions this year.

Please arrive at the Nottoway room in the Sheraton by 8:30am to pick up your THATCamp AHA badge so that we can begin creating a schedule promptly at 9am. We’ve got a full day for sessions this year.

Write me or on Twitter at @thatcamp with any questions, and go to thatcamp.org/activity to see what’s going on at other THATCamps around the world. Hope you find THATCamp AHA fun, productive, and collegial.

To register, visit aha2013.thatcamp.org/register. There is no fee for attending THATCamp AHA, and THATCamp AHA is open to all who wish to come — AHA members and AHA non-members alike. We have room for 100 people, so sign up soon to ensure your slot.

Plans are in the works to hold THATCamp AHA on January 3, 2013 in New Orleans. Check back on this website and follow @thatcampaha on Twitter for further details as they become available.