Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 214.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
                       www.dhhumanist.org
                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org


    [1]    From: Henry Schaffer <hes@ncsu.edu>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.213: institutional forms for digital humanities (82)

    [2]    From: Andrew Prescott <ajprescott@icloud.com>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.213: institutional forms for digital humanities (23)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2023-09-16 19:27:41+00:00
        From: Henry Schaffer <hes@ncsu.edu>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.213: institutional forms for digital humanities

Might this be the start of DH
https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=4017  ? (There are other
references dealing with his work, this one happened to be handy.)

So that takes the start back into the 1950s.

--henry

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 2:36 AM Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:

>
>               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 213.
>         Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>                       Hosted by DH-Cologne
>                        www.dhhumanist.org
>                 Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
>         Date: 2023-09-15 09:07:06+00:00
>         From: maurizio lana <maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
>         Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.210: institutional forms for digital
> humanities?
>
> hi Willard,
>
> i cannot but remember that the filed of what now we call DH was born in
> tight contact with initiatives that we would today call "digital
> libraries":
> padre Busa was building a digital library of Thomas works;
> similarly was for the CATSS (for those who were not born yet, it stands
> for Computer assisted tools for Septuagint studies) of Robert Kraft and
> Emmanuel Tov who were studying the Septuagint Bible.
> and - probably - this is why some of us think of DH as a mainly textual
> discipline.
>
> (would someone like to know more on this specific subject, see Lana,
> Maurizio. «Digital humanities e biblioteche». AIB Studi 59, fasc. 1–2
> (2019): 185–223. https://doi.org/10.2426/aibstudi-11862)
>
> Maurizio
>
>
> Il 15/09/23 10:02, Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk> ha
> scritto:
> > All manner of things influence where in the university or under what
> > identity digital humanities is best positioned. For purposes of
> > argument, let's say there are four possibilities: as a service centre or
> > 'help desk'; as a project-development lab; as a resource hub within the
> > library; as an academic department. Some of us might be inclined to
> > assume that the ideal trajectory, wherever it may start or linger, ends
> > with the academic department.
> >
> > Is this so? Is it the ideal? I'd think that help desks are a thing of the
> past;
> > having served on more than one) I'd be inclined to celebrate that
> > fact, if it is one. Something to argue about?
> >
> > Nevertheless, it seems to me there are strong arguments in favour of both
> > the lab and the library hub in their different ways to realise the
> potential
> of
> > the field. Let me ask, then, who has made the most persuasive case for
> > either of these--a case that acknowledges the disadvantages stemming
> > from lack of academic status but argues for the potential and how to
> realise
> > it?
> >
> > Comments?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> felicità del poco
> edith bruck
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Maurizio Lana
> Università del Piemonte Orientale
> Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
> Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli


--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2023-09-16 08:38:02+00:00
        From: Andrew Prescott <ajprescott@icloud.com>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.213: institutional forms for digital humanities

Dear Willard,

It seems to me that the help desk, far from disappearing, is more
prominent than ever. In any dealing with IT, going through the help desk is the
necessary gateway in almost any situation. But where the help desk physically
exists, or how it is staffed, I have no idea. It has generally become a virtual
entity, although I have sometimes spoken to help desk folk on the phone.

Increasingly, universities and colleges are inclined to outsource help
desks: Tearoff of Nottingham: University to lose chunk of IT dept to
outsourcing <theregister.com>.

Regardless of any political opinion about outsourcing,
I can only see this as a disaster because reduces the level of IT understanding
and expertise on the campus. And it means that serendipitous conversations do
not take place, as they might at a physical help desk. This goes hand in hand
with the outsourcing of general IT infrastructure at universities, mostly to
Microsoft or Google, which I regard as calamitous since it discourages
inquisitive and experimental approaches and treats us just as clients of big
tech. Perhaps we need many more physical help desks? It has to be better than
Capita.

Andrew


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