Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries

Confusion persists in academia regarding digital humanities, especially concerning the role of academic libraries. Editors White (dean) and Gilbert (head of digital scholarship) of the College of Charleston, SC, who have amassed a collection of essays that provide historical context for this interdisciplinary field, detail the establishment of a variety of digital humanities (DH) projects across the United States. They list case studies of successful projects and suggest ways to incorporate and assess these projects from a librarian prospective. This title will be increasingly invaluable to academic librarians as institutions of all sizes require faculty to conduct research in DH or use techniques in the classroom that push students to apply technology in new ways. Most libraries are or will soon be grappling with how to support these varied initiatives; librarians should consider these issues early on so they can be instrumental in developing these programs at their respective schools.