An Abundant Humanities Library

One of the most exciting and potentially transformative aspects of digital humanities is an inflection from dealing with scarcity to dealing with abundance. Traditionally, humanities libraries have been defined by their emphasis on rare materials or special collections. What are the implications of having an abundant humanities library?

As a greater amount of these materials becomes available in digital format, there is growing evidence that humanists might adopt data-driven research or teaching methods that are typically common in the sciences. The multi-institutional “Digging into Data” request for proposals represents an example of this new frontier. The Roman de la Rose Digital Library led by the Johns Hopkins University represents a useful case study in this realm. Choudhury will discuss the implications of the Rose Digital Library for digital librarians and scholars and offer ideas about how humanists might consider developing and leveraging cyberinfrastructure across domains.