On February 27, 2023 Dr. Dorota Siwecka from the University of Wrocław presented the lecture Digital humanities and libraries.
Dr. Barbara Budyńska, President of the Polish Librarians' Association, welcomed the participants representing different types of libraries.
Dr. Dorota Siwecka divided the lecture into two parts. The first one was an introduction to the issue of digital humanities. The speaker began with a few exemplary definitions of digital humanities, its history, and factors conducive to the development of such projects. She also discussed the fields of interest of digital humanities, the object of its research, methods, tools, and processes. Dr. Siwecka described the competences of a digital humanist, which, in addition to domain knowledge, include ICT knowledge (software, programming languages, the ability to create websites, the knowledge of tools for visualising research results). She mentioned numerous examples of digital humanities projects, such as digitization, medialabs, the development of tools and infrastructure, or narrower ones, such as studies on computer gaming or social networks.
In the other part of the lecture, the speaker discussed the role that libraries play in the development of digital humanities. She pointed specifically to digitization of research objects, development of metadata as a basis for research, creating research aids and manuals, and collaborating with researchers. She also answered the question of who is a librarian in digital humanities, focusing on the range of skills that she or he has to demonstrate, and emphasising those that librarians lack. Dr. Siwecka described also the problems librarians face "while participating in the development of a new, digital face of the humanities", such as: insufficient training opportunities, lack of support for the initiatives, or inflexible infrastructure, among others.
Concluding the lecture, she presented numerous examples of digital humanities projects implemented in libraries.
We cordially invite those interested in deepening their knowledge of digital humanities to visit the website of the Digital Archive of the PLA Scientific and Educational Publishing, where the list of full-texts concerning this issue can be found under the aforementioned label.