SPEC Kit 326: Digital Humanities · 21
IT Staff for technical support undergrad students for scanning, OCR, ORC editing Head, Digital Initiatives for collection
creation, metadata creation, project management, uploading, marketing Support Staff for web pages, uploading,
maintenance.
IT staff have been called in to establish web server space and support software and hardware needs related to the
publishing of digital scholarship and providing access to web-based projects. Subject librarians have been called in
to provide subject specific support in a team working on digital scholarship—for instance to teach students to use a
bibliographic tool that we then adapt to create data files, etc. Staff members with expertise in digital sound and imaging
have been brought in to work with students on individual projects.
Librarians work with a scholarly society outside of the library as a librarian editor and metadata consultant to scholars
who contribute content with faculty as needed on their digital projects staff supply support on the same projects that
librarians are involved with.
Often the projects are imaging projects so image management specialists will be involved, then there are generally
some technical aspects to get the material online (programming/designing interface).
One or two people collaborate on a digitization committee.
Please note that we are just rolling out this suite of services and are still figuring out the staffing needs. The number of
staff involved in a single project can range from quick reference questions to intensive subject expertise, programming,
and metadata support. Subject librarians: 1 (may collaborate fully on project may provide quick reference or
collection support). Support staff: 1 or 2 (may collaborate fully on project may troubleshoot as needed). Other staff:
metadata librarians (1–2) Digital Library Program staff (1–2) archivists and other Special Collections staff (1–2) CLIR
Postdoctoral Fellows (1) scholarly communication specialists (1).
Project management (project by project) digitization lab staff Fedora support support of DLP infrastructure. Software
development dedicated to faculty DH projects typically happens in IDAH.
Projects generally include a project leader, one of the two dedicated staff, plus other specialists representing digital
imaging, data archiving, metadata services, audio/video expertise, technology, or preservation services.
Projects range from publishing digital journals and (currently one) monograph to online archives with scanning, design,
and funding needs. Draws on a range of skills, from subject librarians, special collections librarians, cataloguers, digital
library programmers, media specialists, etc.
Several librarians collaborate with a campus digital humanities group. This effort is in the early stages here.
Special Collections/digital scholarship librarian to oversee the entire project. Subject librarian to consult with the faculty
member. Metadata librarian to develop metadata scheme and review metadata. IT librarian for project management.
IT staff member to configure systems, set up accounts, upload content. Web Services staff member to configure search
and browse interfaces.
Subject librarians are involved when their liaison group has specific projects—this number varies. Metadata librarians
involved in all projects as required. Digital Initiatives Coordinator and Institutional Repository Services Librarian involved
as required. IT librarians and programmers involved as required.
Subject librarians or librarians and library IT staff from other areas (government documents, digital media production,
preservation, etc.) are frequently called in for short time periods to address a certain technical or content-related issue.
Less frequently, they will collaborate as partners throughout the time span of the project.
Teams are formed surrounding specific projects, which would usually consist of one or two IT staff, relevant subject
librarians, one support staff member, and student assistants depending on voucher or grant funding.
Previous Page Next Page