Disrupting the transactional library model: the challenges and opportunities of being a partner in digital humanities research
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A presentation by Jane Harvell, director of library services and university librarian, University of Sussex.
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Disrupting the transactional library model: the challenges and opportunities of being a partner in digital humanities research
- 2. Disrupting the transactional library model: the challenges and opportunities of being a partner in digital humanities Jane Harvell @jharvell @sussexlibrary
- 3. Jeffcoat, H., & Colati, G. (2018). From transaction to collaboration: scholarly communications design at UConn Library. Insights, 31, 17. DOI:http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.405 UK(Europe)/US
- 4. Sussex Humanities Lab and The Library
- 5. Sussex Humanities Lab and The Library
- 6. 1. Insufficient training opportunities 2. Lack of support for librarian-conceived initiatives 3. Too many tasks, too little time 4 Lack of authority to marshal the appropriate resources 5. Inflexible infrastructures 6. Lack of incentive 7. The complexity of collaborating with faculty 8. Overcautiousness 9. Diffusion of effort 10. Lack of real institutional commitment Miriam Posner (2013) Challenges to DH in Library
- 7. Structures
- 8. Spaces
- 9. ‘Share what you are doing and learn from each-other…’ Wilms, L. (2018). How challenging is doing DH in a Library in 2018? LIBER https://libereurope.eu/blog/2018/05/25/how-challenging-is-doing-dh-in-a-library-in-2018/ ‘As research libraries become more active partners in DH research and teaching, the sharing of knowledge and best practice will ensure that the partnerships remain beneficial for institutions’ Kamposiori, C. (2017). The role of Research Libraries in the creation, archiving, curation, and preservation of tools for the Digital Humanities. RLUK Report. http://www.rluk.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Digital-Humanities-report-Jul- 17.pdfLUK Technical infrastructure
- 10. Open Reusable, discoverable data (management) Digital Preservation Technologically enhanced teaching/skills training Single team working/efficiencies Smart Sussex Institutional priorities and policies
- 11. ‘Despite the commonalities between DH and LIS and their evident if at times subtle congruence….the two fields have yet to collaborate in ways that exploit their full potential’ Poole and Garwood (2018) Natural allies: Librarians, archivist and big data in International digital humanities project work, Journal of Documentation https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2017-0137 ‘…we could not do what we need to do with the Lab without the Library at the centre’ Professor Tim Hitchcock. Co-director of the Sussex Humanities Lab (2017) Conclusions
- 12. ‘If you want to think about this in terms of librarians and academics… I think in the first wave librarians are part of the service, in the second, we have all become librarians, because the world is library, and in a different way, librarians are engaging in projects in which the questions librarians raised are part of the humanities output in new ways, and in the third; we’re all locked out…’ Professor Caroline Bassett, Director of The Sussex Humanities Lab Digital Humanities
- 13. and finally
- 14. Jane Harvell University of Sussex @jharvell @sussexlibrary Thankyou
Editor's Notes
- Reflect on own experience and some recent work done by both RLUK and LIBER DH and Digital Cultural Heritage working group + bringing in recent publications and surveys from US libray colleagues Explain SHL relationship with Library – Core Associates – Space – cross discipline – led by researchers in MFM, HAAP and Education and Social Work with direct contributions from ENgInf and the library – post doc in the library “We include a engineer in the library, a computer scientist in a school of media, a historian in informatics, a critical theorist taking apart an Atari, we have a library carpenter. We have a digital archivist working on community archives, in a history department, and hosted a post-doc in Mass Obs. WE have a cultural theorist attempting to count electric sheep… (or the possible utility there-of, as a way of distant reading the fiction of Philip K Dick), and an artist from California who wants to project data from the architect Basil Spence archive onto a Basil Spence building; We are right in the middle of all this - its changing culture from the inside” Caroline – sconul conference Presentation - in my own experience of working with the Lab how it has challenged us to think about our structures, our spaces, our technical infrastructures and our institutional priorities and policies Quick thought at the start of this presentation - Going for a few years now and its been challenging (as well as incredibly rewarding) Dawning realisation that a lot of the reason this has been hard is that we are so transactional in libraries (for good reason usually) But there is no doubt that DH/partnership with the lab can help us reflect on why we do things and can support us in approaching our problems in a different way. Not just in one direction – two way – so our more transactional nature and way of working is influencing and inspiring our DH colleagues.
- I’ve not long been in this role What I’ve learnt is its good to Admit what I don’t know – one of the things I don’t know is what are the differences in US/UK/Europe approach to DH in libraries? Not what this presentation is about – putting it out there that there are differences – libraries in he US and Europe (+ maybe institutions) are just different I’m going to talk about a partnership – opposed to collaboration (heard a lot in the literature I read from the US), rather than working with, being part off – sharing a vision – which is hard, maybe harder than a collaboration? This paper is a result of a presentation at CNI in 2017 – talks about Greenhouse Studio – research laboratory based in the Library – really interesting programme with collaborative workflows, equitable hierarchies and use of collaborative space – interested in a really exciting DH/library project in the US then go read this article
- Back to the SHL About 12 months ago Let Caroline (Director of the SHL) explain and reflect on what it has been like during the early days of partnering with the Library New model of partnership Embed postdocs into the Library core teams New relationship “away from the service economy” “bring in skills” (come back to towards the end of presentation)
- Fiona Courage – our Head of Collections – last two years has line managed the post-doc – Here she is reflecting on the change working with the Lab is bringing into the Library – again from last year Using research questions to frame the way we approach changes “do something for – work with the research” Partnership – not collaboration?
- Let me step back from my own experiences and look at the DH/Library landscape Miriam Posner is a Assistant Prof in Information studies and DH at UCLA List of 10 challenges posed by Miriam in her 2013 article No Half Measures: overcoming common challenges to doing digital humanities in the Library. Recent LIBER DH blog posting they went back to these challenges both to start discussion but also to see how far they had come All very familiar to me and to our library community and probably all still relevant – I will pick up on some of these when discussing what I see as my challenges as a senior member of staff in the four areas of– space, infrastucture inc. technical infrastrure and institutional priorities & policies Before I leave this slide, Posner challenge no 8 – over cautiousness – note he comments from the LIBER working group - six years later libraries do dare to take the plunge more often in DH, o have decided DH is something they need to do (although they haven’t always decided how), European libraries love taking risks…applies to the setting I’m going to use to demonstrate the challenges and opportunities in being a partner in digital humanities
- Our library Structures Obvious challenge – we have services to deliver – under increasing pressure – services to students Many of our roles are very conservative, very transactional in the traditional sense – they have to be, not innovative & skills Posner challenge to me – no. 4 that is “lack of authority to marshal the appropriate resources” Through our strategic planning and a shared vision with the Lab I can signal that DH is part of our work – allocate it a budget and allocate indirect costs to certain role across the library to ensure it becomes embedded Opportunities Library Carpentry Programming Historian budget – James Open Publishing SHL Seminars – sharing skills
- Another hard one for us – libraries tend to think of space in terms of study space – overwhelming use of our space is students – makes it hard for me to think about DH (research) space in the Library Traditionally our spaces are about offering a service for displaying print, offering different kinds of study environment, delivering refreshments, commercial outlets. As an aside this is particularly challenging at Sussex as we don’t have enough study space across campus – cant think about dedicating research space in the more US approach – would not work and anyway I don’t think the Lab would like it I am thinking of this as an opportunity to think about what appropriate study space we need to provide for those students who are being taught curriculum using DH techniques links to DH teaching + also to bring in more experimental technology into the Library – this comes from our close relationship with TEL with who, we run our digital discovery weeks and digital Tuesday events that deliver skills training and awarenesss around digital skills and techniques So for us I don’t think it will be about bringing an SHL research space into the Library – its about providing a study (possibly a teaching) environment (possibly experimental and more risky) for those students who are being taught using DH methods and working with the Lab on what those might be
- Another big challenge when HE institutions are labouring under the massive IT institutional infrastructure - there appears to be no avenue for experimentation/need a more flexible IT infrastructure – chasing our tails keeping the transactional stuff current (student record systems, VLE, networks etc.) Opportunities again to bring in an work with TEL who are also leaning on more bespoke (unsustainable probably) solutions to deliver creative digitally enhanced teaching – they require a flexible approach + I think this is one area where you can really learn from each other This is an area where we can really share experiences as I think certainly in the UK with a lack of investment possibly and the speed of technology it is one way of moving forward Links to RLUK (great to see them pulling us together)/ echoed by LIBER For his to work we have to take a risk-based approach – cant be overcautious in this – doesn’t fit SHL – brought our postdoctoral researcher – under our Digital Development Manager – pushing information the other way instead of him always complaining about IT
- Finally – this is where things seem to slot into place a little more easily All goals and aims of the lab Actually we have used the relationship with the Lab as a lever to improve our transactional work - open publishing (Open culture of DH)/research data management/digital preservation
- Draw some conclusions and some next steps Nice survey – can see how everyone is approaching this differently – their conclusions, we are still all largely dancing around each-other – don’t disagree – each institutions deals with this “new” relationship differently – Back to Sussex, what I know - quote from Tim from about a year ago Good fortune to have strong networks with our academic colleagues – not a large institution and there is/was already Healthy respect for the work of the archives and special collections at Sussex, natural we should be included Lab has been active now for a couple of years - this has taken time and I feel that the obstacles have been around not just our transactional way of working but also that the university emphasising this – we are in professional services where it is all about transactional As Library Director I now have an opportunity to ensure we have strong strategic alignment with the SHL and a joint vision – about to produce a new strategic plan in response to new Strategic University framework so an ideal opportunity + importantly we must communicate it not just to both our own staff and to the university. Plus I’d like to see how we take it beyond partnering in research but look at how the relationship strengthens our ability to support the services we deliver to students –particularly those who are being taught using DH methods
- End with a final quote from Caroline – part of a presentation she gave to the SCONUL Conference this month Automated Humanities – AI for research – Dan Cohen talks about academic libraries in the digital age– what is our value when everything is automated Thinking like librarians and archivists – Dr James Baker (Library Carpentrary) / Dr Sharon Webb (digital archives and data) Bring in skills – Ben
- Lets finish with Ben Flavour of what we have been doing – engineer thinking like an archivst Dr Ben Jackson – who is our postdoctoral fellow here in the library– bid he refers to – slightly rushed as I told him to squeeze it in under 4 mins Lovely – so we have an engineer quoting archon numbers – hurrah