[Roxanne Shirazi]

Picking up from some of the discussion that happened at the NYCDH Inaugural Event today, I wanted to introduce myself to the group and talk about what I (personally) would like to see happen in this space we’ve created. I hope that those of you who have joined will also take a few minutes to chime in to introduce yourselves along with your expectations or what you’d want to get out of this group forum. Then we could decide collectively how to keep this space useful and thriving.

I am a recently-minted librarian (Pratt SILS) and currently an MA student in digital humanities (CUNY Graduate Center). I also co-edit the dh+lib blog, which has a similar goal of bringing together librarians engaged with DH. Over the summer, I was approached by Alycia Sellie and Gioia Stevens about creating this group, and my honest response was: Why isn’t there one already?

What I find appealing about this NYCDH group space is the potential to bring together librarians informally from across institutions, who can then leverage their local involvement in what we like to call “the library world” to foster new connections and new opportunities for librarians in the city who are working within/around/through DH. That was a mouthful. But what I am describing is a kind of crossroads, where we can talk here about larger “DH and libraries” issues and bring that discussion back to inform our work with existing local organizations, or in our classrooms. The kind of discussion that tends to happen at THATCamp library sessions, but asynchronous and forum-based.

I also see a potential for using this group to highlight DH events, CFPs, workshops, etc. that are aimed primarily at librarians. So, if you are planning something with, say, Metro (or LACUNY, or ACRLNY, etc.) you could use this space to promote and discuss these events so that we can learn collectively from our successes and failures.

Ultimately, I’d like to use these connections to explore the possibility of having an (annual?) NYC symposium or mini-conference on DH and libraries. But that’s pie-in-the-sky talk!

That’s what I’d like to get out of this group. Who’s next?

[Jennifer Ferretti]

Hi all, I’m a second year Pratt SILS student, concentrating on Digital Humanities. Before moving to New York last August to attend grad school, I was the Curator of Photographs/Digitization Coordinator at the Maryland Historical Society – a museum/library with a gigantic collection of everything from historic and contemporary fine art to Baltimore City dirt. Over the summer I worked with the Humanities & History team at Columbia University as a fellow and had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Developing Librarian project.

Right now I’m the Photo Collection Fellow at Barnard College Archives and an intern at NYPL’s Manuscript & Archives Division. I’m invested in making history available to the widest possible audience, which is how I became interested in DH.

I joined this group to get an idea of how working librarians are involved with DH projects. I’d love to hear about your roles in DH, what more you’d like to do, and anything else that comes up related to DH as working librarians. I’m also hoping to see more librarians involved in the DH dialogue. Thanks for starting this group, Roxanne!

[Alycia Sellie]

Hey everyone!

Thanks to Roxanne for kicking off our group and starting the introductions. As she mentioned, we at CUNY had noticed a lot of interest in dh and a yearning for folks to speak directly to librarians who are living in and working with dh projects. With so many projects here in NYC beyond CUNY, we were hoping this group and space could act as a bigger and more robust network than just our knowledge and contacts alone.

A bit about me: I am an electronic resources/serials librarian at the CUNY Graduate Center, and also a student in the Masters in Liberal Studies program here. I used to be a alternative publications and zine librarian at Brooklyn College and in the Midwest before that. I’m interested in all kinds of dh topics, perhaps more on the dark/critical side of dh.

Although I missed the inagural event, I’m excited to get to know this group and to hear more about what is happening in the overlap between dh and libraries/archives throughout the city!

 

 

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Alycia Sellie.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Alycia Sellie.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Alycia Sellie.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Alycia Sellie.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Alycia Sellie.

[Gioia Stevens]

Hi All! Thanks again to Roxanne for starting off our group.  I work with Alycia at the CUNY Graduate Center Library. I’m the Metadata Librarian and also a student in the digital humanities track of the Masters in Liberal Studies Program here.  I used to be a special collections cataloger at the Fales Library at NYU where I worked on everything from 16th century rare books to early American cookbooks to original artwork from the downtown scene in NYC in the 1970s.

I’m excited about our group because I really want to reach out and learn more about what other NYC librarians are doing.  I’m especially interested in how new DH tools can improve library metadata and make our collections more accessible to the public. I’m getting started on learning more about text mining and topic modeling and I can use all the help I can get. I’d be delighted to get to know the members of this group and see what we can do in the future.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Gioia Stevens.

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