Twitter has been abuzz with digital humanities (aka DH) discussions over the last week as the Modern Language Association (#mla11) and the American Historical Association (#aha2011) held their annual meetings. Amongst interesting debates on the future of DH and the role of 'alternative-academics' (librarians, archivists, coders etc), there was some discussion on the inclusiveness of the DH community. Perian Sully took up this issue in relation to the GLAM sector, wondering how difficult it was for GLAM sector workers to find and participate in DH networks and events.
You can see from the comments on Perian's post that it provoked a lot of interesting discussion. Most importantly, however, it has prompted a couple of useful initiatives. First of all, Sheila Brennan from the Center for History and New Media, has posted a new topic 'Getting to know DH if you work in cultural heritage' on the DHAnswers site. (DHAnswers is simply a digital humanities question and answers site, developed by the Association for Computers and the Humanities -- it's turning into a really useful resource.) Sheila's post has many useful suggestions, though it's focused more on museums than archives. If you can think of more ideas, then add them!
Perian has also been busy creating a poll for potential DH-GLAM mentors. I'll post more information about this as it comes to hand.
And a couple of Australian initiatives to keep an eye on. VeRSI in Melbourne is taking the lead in establishing an Australian DH Association (see Craig Bellamy's post). There's going to be a meeting to discuss how we do this in Canberra in March. I hope that the GLAM sector here will become strongly involved in the new association -- we can help shape what the organisation is and does.
And lastly THATCamp Melbourne is fast approaching - registrations open on 21 January! Hope to see many of you there.
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