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An Institutional Framework for the Digital Humanities: an Alternative to the DH Centre7 September 2012

Introduction – Some Initial Questions

• Is a DH Centre a goal for every institution? Should it be?

• Who are we supporting in supporting “digital humanities”?

• How do we reach researchers in need of support?

Problems of Scale – The Example of Oxford

The Digital.Humanities@Oxford Initiative

Digital.Humanities@Oxford: Goals and Problems

Goals:

•Better networking, current information about projects and people in DH

•Developing workshops, seminars, and training

•Creating webpages with information about support, training, and best practice

Problems:

•Size and decentralization of the university, and the dispersed nature of DH at

Oxford

•DPhil students’ needs can differ from other researchers’ needs

•Many people working with DH methodologies are not active in DH discussions

•Everybody’s busy!

Where Digital Humanities Happens at Oxford

Initial Steps for a Digital Humanities Network

The Process is the Product

The process of identifying support, creating documentation, and identifying services builds infrastructure.

Gathering requirements, speaking with researchers, and holding workshops builds infrastructure.

Requirements Gathering

• Face to face meetings with IT Officers

– Time and budget to do project work

– Sustaining old projects past end of funded life

• Face to face meetings with Research Facilitators

– Single point of contact for digital questions

– Case studies of possibilities for digital projects

– Workshop and guidance on AHRC Technical Appendix

• The inertia factor

Lunchtime Briefings

Four two-hour sessions, with 15-minute project talks and an hour for discussion, covering: Digital Editions, Large Datasets, Sound, and Images

•Problems: Acoustics, lunch, short timing of talks, focus of talks, showcase format doesn’t do technical teaching, audience had differing levels of interest and technical ability

•Benefits: An introduction to possibilities and the range of digital humanities activity, exposure for collaborators, raised profile for digital humanities within Oxford

One big benefit: audience surveys.

Steps toward Dispersed Sustainability

How can we get Oxford’s resources in a more sustainable state, given the dispersion of the university and the wide array of different support services?

•Single point of contact for digital project questions

•Information on support and training available on the website

•Create resources emphasizing which people to talk to at each stage of

the project—particularly IT Officers in Faculties

Limits of the Virtual Network

Positive Features of the Virtual Network

• All levels of expertise

• Broadly multi-disciplinary

• Reaches people through many channels

• Digital and physical engagement

The Takeaway