Digital Resources in Humanities Research: Evidence of Value (2)

This takes further the issues discussed at the ALLC session at
DH2007.
While most of us who do humanities computing need no
convincing of its value, academic colleagues - including those
on appointment and promotion panels - still need to be
convinced, and even more so funders. If we want backing for
the use and further development of digital resources, both data
and processes, we need to collect more extensive concrete
evidence of the ways in which they enable us to do research
better, or to do research we would not otherwise be able to
do, or to generate new knowledge in entirely new ways. Since
the value of humanities research as a whole is qualitative, not
quantitative, it is qualitative evidence in particular we should be
looking for: digital resources providing the means not simply
of doing research, but of doing excellent research.
The DH2007 panel session discussed a wide range of general
issues arising in the discussion of the value of humanities
computing, both in terms of its impact and results, and in
terms of the intrinsic structures and qualities of digital objects
created for research purposes.
The present panel session takes this further one the one hand
by presenting recent work in the UK that has systematically
tried to capture the value of humanities computing support
activities, of digital tools development projects, and in general
of the impact of of digital methods on research in the arts and
humanities. Lorna Hughes and David Robey will discuss the
results of the evaluation process at the end of the AHRC ICT
Methods Network at King’s College London, and of related
work on a set of resource-development projects funded by
the AHRC ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme.
John Unsworth and David Hoover will take a somewhat
more anecdotal approach, and one that emphasizes North
America rather than the UK. They will focus on a variety of
ways of assessing and enhancing the value of digital humanities
research in the areas of access, analysis, and advancing one’s
career. What kinds and levels of access to digital material have
the most impact? What kinds of analysis and presentation,
and what venues of publication or dissemination are most
persuasive and effective? How does or can the exploitation of
digital materials enhance the career of the (digital) humanist?
We hope that participants from other countries will contribute
their points of view in the discussion.