Digital Humanities : Implications for Librarians, Libraries, and Librarianship

The digital humanities in academic institutions, and libraries in particular, have exploded in recent years. Librarians are constantly developing their management and technological skills and increasing their knowledge base. As they continue to embed themselves in the scholarly conversations on campus, the challenges facing subject/liaison librarians, technical service librarians, and library administrators are many.

This comprehensive volume highlights the wide variety of theoretical issues discussed, initiatives pursued, and projects implemented by academic librarians. Many of the chapters deal with digital humanities pedagogy―planning and conducting training workshops, institutes, semester-long courses, embedded librarian instruction, and instructional assessment―with some chapters focusing specifically on applications of the “ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.” The authors also explore a wide variety of other topics, including the emotional labor of librarians; the challenges of transforming static traditional collections into dynamic, user-centered, digital projects; conceptualizing and creating models of collaboration; digital publishing; and developing and planning projects including improving one’s own project management skills. This collection effectively illustrates how librarians are enabling themselves through active research partnerships in an ever-changing scholarly environment.

This book was originally published as a special triple issue of the journal College & Undergraduate Libraries.

Christopher Millson-Martula retired in 2017 as Director of the Library at Lynchburg College, USA after a lengthy career in college and university libraries. His areas of particular interest included customer service, collection management, and interlibrary cooperation. He was active in the profession at local, regional, state, and national levels, including as Chairperson of the College Libraries Section at the Association of College and Research Libraries, Chicago, USA. In addition, he has published extensively in journal literature, made numerous conference presentations, and served as former Editor of the journal College & Undergraduate Libraries.

Kevin Gunn is Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries, Washington, D.C., USA. He teaches courses in humanities research and digital humanities in the Department of Library and Information Science at the same university. Kevin is Editor of the journal College & Undergraduate Libraries. His interests include presenting and publishing on issues in information ethics, predatory publishing, digital scholarship, and professional development for librarians.