Why I love what I do, reason 479.
Am reading the newly-published A Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens and John Unsworth and published by Blackwell. Whipping through more than reading, really: I’d recalled it from the library and it got recalled right back, so I only have until Monday and it’s almost 700 pages long. There’s tons of interesting stuff in there. Most of it is nothing new for me – the book reads like a primer – but the writing is excellent and there are some new ideas, and when I teach an intro to humanities computing class, this will likely be the main textbook. Um, if they come out with a version that doesn’t cost $165.
Speaking of excellent writing, here’s a bit from Carole L. Palmer’s “Thematic Research Collections”:
[T]he creators of scholarly collections will need to be a new kind of scholar, or team, with a distinct mix of expertise in at least three areas – the specific subject matter and associated critical and analytical techniques, technical computing processes, and principles of content selection and organization.
Both my job with the VHL and [especially] my dissertation for a PhD in humanities computing (!!) challenge me to develop along all of these lines. There are low points, to be sure, but the occasional bird’s-eye-view inspires and recharges me. This field is so… fun. How many people can boast an adventurous academic life? Unbelievable luck, right here.