Hello, I don’t know if this idea requires its own talk session or if it could be folded into some of the others, but here goes. I’m currently a cataloging librarian, so naturally my focus is on bibliographic metadata. Since I work in an art library, I catalog a lot of art books, but I sometimes wonder if the cataloging I do is sufficient. In particular, I’ve been wondering if art researchers would appreciate knowing what works of art are reproduced or described in a given publication. This would probably require more time and effort than most cataloging outfits can afford, but I’m hoping that current technology might reduce some of that to manageable levels. A couple ideas:

• Scanning lists of illustrations/plates into PDFs that can be linked from the catalog record, the way some libraries currently do with tables of contents
• Using trusted sources of (linked) open data, such as CONA or museum websites, to identify works of art and possibly even verify/record their publication histories

Of course, there are potential issues with this. Simply digitizing published information may not be sufficient; for example, how would one account for artworks that are untitled, retitled, or even mis-titled? Some form of authority control might help, but that would require even more time and research on the part of the cataloger; imagine having to do that for 10, 20, or 100+ works in a single monograph. Finally, where would this information—scans, metadata, etc.—be stored/kept? For now, though, the foremost question in my mind is the one I started with: does anyone, aside from me, want to know what artworks are in what books?

Hi, everyone! I would love to co-host (any want to join me?) a session demoing various data sources and mining methods for work in the digital humanities. I think this would be a great complement to sessions that explore various tools for DH.

After all, once you master the tools, where and how do you get your data?!

Discussion around:

• Sources attendees have used in the past
• Ideas for new sources
• Demos of how to use these methods
• Anything else related to DH data sourcing, mining, collecting, etc.

Looking forward to learning with you all!

Stephanie Ballard

My campus has recently seen a surge of collaboration among scholars in the fields of architecture/design, public history, and the visual/performing arts. Scholars and students are learning to engage with the built environment in dynamic and innovative ways through emerging technologies like drone-based aerial photography, geo-tagging, 3D printing and scanning, and virtual reality environments. With our wealth of unique primary sources and information skills, it seems like library, archives, and museum professionals could add tremendous value to these kinds of projects.

Discussions might include topics like:

• How are digital humanities scholars currently using primary sources from archival collections on architecture and design?
• What new possibilities can we (LAM professionals) imagine for these resources?
• How do we tackle barriers to use, such as low primary source literacy for visual materials, intellectual property and copyright fears, mistaken assumptions by scholars about LAM organizations, etc?
• How can we engage design professionals (architects, industrial designers, engineers, etc) in this work?