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How many humanities scholars does it take to define digital humanities? "Good question, to which there is no good answer, but rather just more questions..." - Paul Spence, courtesy of http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com/ I can't help but think the definition of digital humanities is "overthinking it." Scholarship is practiced by non-humanities disciplines such as the natural sciences as well as the humanities. Simply appending digital to it doesn't really clearly refer to anything except the vague notion that somewhere, somehow, computers and/or fingers play an important role. DL On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 4:13 AM, Nick Szydlowski <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I like Bryan's answer as well. I've heard a lot of comments and jokes > about the difficulty of defining digital humanities; this site gives a > different definition each time you refresh the page: > > http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com/ > > Nick > > > Nick Szydlowski > Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication Librarian > Boston College Law School > 617 552-4474 > > On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 3:04 PM, McAulay, Elizabeth < > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Bryan's answer is very well thought out and jibes with my understanding > of > > this topic, too. > > > > ________________________________________ > > From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Bryan > > Brown <[log in to unmask]> > > Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 11:49 AM > > To: [log in to unmask] > > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Definitional Question > > > > Hi Matt, > > > > I work in the Technology & Digital Scholarship department of Florida > State > > University Libraries, and I spent my first few months trying to come up > > answers to those exact questions. Here's what I came up with: > > > > Digital humanities is the act of doing humanities scholarship using > > research methods enabled by new technology. The archetypical digital > > humanities project in my mind is text mining. If you are coming up with > > humanities "data" and using data analysis tools on it, you are probably > > doing DH work (IMHO). > > > > Digital scholarship is the idea of DH, but extended outside of DH to all > > scholarship. How does new technology affect scholarship in psychology? > > biochemistry? law? A big problem that I see with "digital scholarship" is > > that I have yet to hear anyone outside of libraries or DH communities use > > it. The humanities havent always been so digital, so the term "Digital > > Humanities" is a semi-useful term to differentiate this specific form of > > research from more "traditional" methods. The "digital" prefix has less > > utility outside of humanities; science has always been pretty digital out > > of necessity and other fields have adopted digital methods as they go. > I've > > heard librarians use the term e-science sometimes, and it reminds me of > the > > term "e-business" back in the 90's but now almost all business is > > e-business so the term no longer makes much sense. Most scholarship these > > days is digital, which makes defining digital scholarship as something > > special a bit difficult. > > > > In our department we use digital scholarship to refer to parts of the > > scholarship process that are more technology-oriented where faculty might > > not be aware of general best practices. Data management, research > metadata, > > altmetrics, web publishing and licensing are some areas that we try to > > focus on supporting faculty. We aren't a huge department and we're > learning > > as we go, so discussing what digital scholarship means and how we can > > provide value to faculty members is a big point of discussion (although > I'm > > sure we all have our own definitions and ideas). > > > > Just one person's opinion, I hope that doesn't confuse things further. > > -Bryan Brown > > > > On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 2:13 PM, Natalie Meyers <[log in to unmask]> > > wrote: > > > > > this title may be of interest : > > > Defining Digital Humanities A Reader Edited by Melissa Terras, Julianne > > > Nyhan and Edward Vanhoutte December 2013 978-1-4094-6963-6 $44.95 > > > > > > On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 1:58 PM, Matt Sherman <[log in to unmask] > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > > > This is a bit more philosophical question which might only apply to a > > few > > > > people but I am trying to work out some definitions for my own > > > > edification. So for those in the digital scholarship and digital > > > > humanities subset I would be interested in getting some thoughts on > > these > > > > three questions: > > > > > > > > 1) How would you define digital scholarship? > > > > > > > > 2) How would you define digital humanities? > > > > > > > > 3) Are they the same thing and why or why not? > > > > > > > > Any thoughts are appreciated as I am trying to think through this > > myself. > > > > > > > > Matt Sherman > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > *Natalie K. Meyers* > > > > > > *E-Research & VecNet Digital Librarian* > > > > > > *Hesburgh Libraries* > > > > > > *University of Notre Dame* > > > 1136A Hesburgh Library > > > Notre Dame, IN 46556 > > > *o:* 574-631-1546 > > > *f:* 574-631-6772 > > > *e: *[log in to unmask] > > > > > > <http://library.nd.edu/> > > > > > >