Digital Library Center Blog | UF

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Humanities High Performance Computing Collaboratory (HpC) is a summer institute for graduate students and faculty who are conducting scholarship in the digital humanities. HpC offers two five-day workshops, one with the University of Illinois’ Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (I-CHASS), and the other at the University of South Carolina’s Center for Digital Humanities (CDH). Attendees will 1) receive a comprehensive education in four computational concentrations: computer vision, augmented reality, game design, and mobile app development; 2) receive instruction in digital humanities project design and management; 3) obtain hands on experience with a variety of technical platforms; 4) work with technical staff to outline pilot explorations in at least one area of computational concentrations; and 5) join a year long virtual community where scholars will support their peers in authoring digital humanities projects.

The first workshop will take place in Champaign, IL on June 10-14, 2012. The second will take place in Columbia, SC on August 5-9, 2012. There will be a two-day concluding conference to be hosted by CDH August 25-26. From June 10 2012 to June 10, 2013, participants will be linked by an online collaboratory where they can discuss, plan, and develop new projects in the digital humanities.

Because the goal of HpC is to familiarize scholars in the humanities with the crucial technologies and methods of advanced computing, applicants need not have any technical background or expertise.

To apply, please send a letter of interest that outlines your current technical and intellectual investment in digital humanities and C.V. to Michael Simeone, mpsimeon@illinois.edu. Please submit your application before January 15th, 2012. HpC will select a total of 25 applicants for participation in the institute.

For more information visit www.dhhpc.org

MLA’s Profession 2011 is out and it includes six articles within the section on “Evaluating Digital Scholarship.” All of the articles within “Evaluating Digital Scholarship” are openly available (no library subscription needed), excellent, timely, and needed.

It is critically important for academia to engage and grapple with concerns over the evaluation of digital scholarship. This work is specifically needed to develop the necessary supports for evaluating digital scholarship as scholarship that “counts” for promotion and tenure. The official evaluation is difficult because traditional reporting separates work into three categories: research, teaching (or core job duties in some instances, as it is for me as a tenure-track librarian), and service. Digital scholarship is often public scholarship (and I would argue that it should always be the case) and is often collaborative, and so digital scholarship often crosses traditional evaluation categories. This is generally the case for a good deal of academic work, but not necessarily to the same extent or degree of complexity. The evaluation and measurement of digital scholarship is needed because digital/public scholarship is needed for inquiry into existing research areas, increased impact and benefit from research, and increased visibility and connection of scholarship with the public.

The articles in the section on “Evaluating Digital Scholarship” in Profession 2011 are:

• Introduction
  Susan Schreibman, Laura Mandell, and Stephen Olsen
  Full text (PDF)
• Engaging Digital Scholarship: Thoughts on Evaluating Multimedia Scholarship
  Steve Anderson and Tara McPherson
  Full text (PDF)
• On the Evaluation of Digital Media as Scholarship
  Geoffrey Rockwell
  Full text (PDF)
• Where Credit Is Due: Preconditions for the Evaluation of Collaborative Digital Scholarship
  Bethany Nowviskie
  Full text (PDF)
• On Creating a Usable Future
  Jerome McGann
  Full text (PDF)
• Peer Review, Judgment, and Reading
  Kathleen Fitzpatrick
  Full text (PDF)