Digital Humanities Issues - Term Paper Example

DIGITAL HUMANITIES “Humanities is about people: how people create the world they live in; how the world they live in makes them the people they are” (Smith 1). Introduction When taking into consideration the position of science in mankind’s general effort for knowledge and self-expression, it is striking to understand how much interrelationship present between our diverse intellectual activities. Man’s drive to convey himself can take various forms. Some of these may involve crafting or doing things such as painting, sculpture, architecture, music, writing, dance, and other activities in what is normally called the arts and letters. The field of humanities is generally known as a study that relate to learning concerning and articulating human thinking and relationship. Like science, humanities have to move ahead to new levels of understanding, people need to advance innovative new ideas, theories, concepts, and to investigate reality (Olah 18). Humanities in the 20th Century The humanities which are essentially evolving around the meanings of life to a man as a persons are separate from sciences and social sciences. Ideas and feelings are revealed verbosely in language, representatively through all the arts, and with theoretical or chronological concern for values as it turns to the inner or outward meanings of human reality. In the discipline of humanities, all information about what man had discovered about himself and his environment, are given by scholars and teachers for utilization of “all men in present and in future” (Stevens 1). The 20th century is different from what it was several centuries ago and retrospectively will prove that the humanities have developed logically out of what it used to be but have also added to themselves new fields of interest in keeping with modern-day conditions. While the mechanical clock is the symbol for the early modern times and the steam engine characterize the industrial revolution, “the computer is the symbol of our age” (Burton 1). This is because computers influenced almost every part of our lives, and the social sciences and humanities are no excluded as it altered the ways scholars research, write, and teach. According to Dewitt, alterations of the subjects and objects of humanities research and teaching in the last several decades have considerably changed what the would-be user of research collections is likely to be concerned in finding. Scholars in the humanities are now concerned in the experience, literary accomplishments, and artistic production of people who were scarcely a blip on the scholarly sphere 25 years ago. Humanities have also extended their methodological tool kit to have room for new subjects such as the use of quantitative methods of analysis and database technologies has swept over all the humanistic disciplines. Although, the use of computers and quantitative methods is not a pre-requisite for scholarship in the humanities, absence of such methods and technologies would make humanistic scholarship far less rich and productive (45). Similarly, digital technology according to Beisgen & Kraitchman, is a functional tool in the humanities classroom, offering improved, interactive content. Educationalist have found that the utilization of digital resources is having a exceedingly constructive consequence on humanities teaching and learning in the classroom, encouraging greater interactivity with the content and access to sources of information. The Internet is a influential vehicle, one that both offer and restrict learning activities but according to Burniske & Monke, it is not advisable to use it at all times since it would disadvantaged both students and teachers since they will lose the prospect for intellectual adventure (242). Similarly, although the Web enable people who are unable to attend an exhibition to experiences it in their homes or other community site, obstacles such as inequality of access, inaccurate and inappropriate materials on the Web, and large number of humanities teachers who lack adequate time, training, preparation, and equipment may prevent teachers to take advantage of the best digital tools available to enrich their curriculum (192). Humanities Scholars and the Power of Computing Scholars have developed and are envisioning the information infrastructure so that new approaches will yield faster and more useful results. Much of the power of computing is realized over the Internet and some research activities can be accomplished at a fraction of the previous cost, making research opportunities available to many scholars who would be unable to afford traditional approaches. Computers provide social scientists and humanist with working environment that enable them to benefit from the powerful processing capabilities of today computers. Computers are flexible, able to store, transmit, use, and create information. Using computers as a tool that stimulates creative thinking is expected to help solve real-world problems (Burton 14). Although use of digital resources by scholars remains limited, they are becoming more visible in the humanities. Humanist, according to Brockman (2001), have come to depend on new technology and digital communication to perform some of their usual task but the utilization of information coming from digital resources has yet to become a practice. Projects aim to digitized information are providing scholar’s with desktop images, sound, texts, data sources but librarians do not support or understand the functions on which research in the humanist rely.. Libraries and information professionals are just starting to appreciate and apply the powers of computers in enhancing research since digital libraries are still evolving. As early as 1999, eager to find functionalities in new technologies to support the goals of research in their subject area, humanists were incorporating new technology into their work. The move was based on the premise that future development of research libraries should be informed by the actual practices and needs of working scholars and that it should take into account the value and impact of the technologies that they have adopted thus far. The procedures in humanities research and the products of research are intimately linked.. In reality, the products of research are firmly connected to research activities and the writing of its interpretation. In the humanities, in a particular sense, the product of research relies in the writing of the final printed reports. In a study of information requirements and uses of humanities scholars conducted by Stone (1982) in Brockman (2001), humanist are likely alone in the performance of their work, they handle their own literature searches, and rely on browsing. They employ an assortment of research methods that may be copied from other disciplines. Their study resources also varied and are taken from an assortment of types of resources (2). The nature of humanities itself, in many ways, was undergoing several problems including disintegration that oftentimes difficult to rebuild, vanishing from educational memory, as the foundation of it values have been extensively distorted and significantly different beyond recognition. One of the influences impacting humanities education most prominently and profoundly is the rise of information technologies (Inman, Reed, & Sands 8). Electronic media require a new paradigm of knowledge production and consumption, one with serious implications. Instead of individuals locating and making use of print-only resources for projects, the contemporary knowledge quest may often be met by computer database access, an interface that well reflects shifting values in the humanities because it calls into question the nature of research practices themselves. However, understanding transformations in knowledge transactions does not reveal everything. Indeed, information technologies also enable new genres of communication, important opportunities with critical implications. Finally, then, humanities scholars cannot imagine information technologies as invisible conduits for research and communication. Instead, the technologies must be critically and thoroughly examined because they impact educational practices (Inman, Reed, & Sands 9). As mentioned earlier, humanities scholars put together and combine data from numerous sources. Like many other sciences, humanities scholars not only require tools and services to evaluate digital data, but also tools that can help them in analysis and deliberation. Humanistic research usually happen in a setting that integrates the cultural circumstance of artifacts. Humanities utilizes information technologies to search for patterns and build models like many other in the field. The nature of scholarship in restrained and important ways is being altered by electronic texts and models, which have been under tremendous discussion since computing become a potential scholarly resource for humanities (Borgman 220). Digital Humanities There are two common types of result in digital humanities projects. One is birth of digital libraries as a result of cooperation between scholars and digitizing resources initiatives of cultural institutions. According to Borgman, the Beazley Archive had in 2005 over 200,000 records on primeval Greek pottery and interrelated culture, and received over 200,000 searches of its database per day (220). Scholars can assemble units of writing that is coming from different parts of the world from a digital library of cuneiforms. The other common group of digital humanities products consists of collection of digitized cultural objects coupled with analyses and interpretations. These products resembles digital books since they represent a collaborated research chronicle, but they are more helpful because the usually include interactive components and having useful links to the primary sources where the research is based (227). Libraries have long been perceived as the laboratory or the workplace for the humanities scholar, providing access to the wealth of materials that are subsequently analyzed, critiqued, and interpreted. The digital version of those libraries, Siemens & Moorman explains, have the potential to enhance, augment, and extend the physical library by amplifying existing resources and services and enabling new processes that facilitate and semi-automate the work of the humanities scholar. The digital library is considered a digital repository of documents whether they are text, graphics, video, and audio. More commonly, a digital library is defined as an organized and networked collection of information that is stored, accessed and presented electronically (92). In other words, this definition intimates the digital manifestation of a physical library as well as the scholar’s notion of the library as a collection. And because the object of analysis for the humanities scholar usually resides within the collection of a library, the library to a humanities scholar is the source of data for analysis and interpretation and the source for evidence to support interpretation. Consequently, as more scholars spend more time in front of computer screens, they will naturally want the library to supply more digital library content in their subject areas. This is because a good number of the currently available digital humanities resources are simply a reformatting of materials which the typical library already owns. Building library collections will only become more difficult as the format options expand, user expectations increase, and the fiscal resources do not keep pace. Moreover, humanities are in part a never-ending process of reflecting upon man’s artistic creations, beliefs, actions, and collected wisdom. Humanities scholars study the works of humankind and these works were created in different times, in different places, by different personalities, using different languages and media. They do not simply allow themselves to being approached via keywords, Boolean logic, and easily retrieved and manipulated information snippets such as web pages and journal articles. Currently constructed database tools have long proven inadequate for analyzing the original sources that humanist work with, since the raw source material for the humanities databases cannot be easily divided into the predetermined differentiated categories required by the underlying current relational database technology (Owens 11). Conclusion Humanities like other sciences have to move forward, advance creative ideas, and explore reality. The 20th century is much different and humanities must keep pace with contemporary circumstances. Computers affect every aspect of people’s lives, social sciences, and the humanities. It has changed the way humanities scholars research, write, and teach. Humanities has accommodated new subjects and applying novel methods and information technologies In the humanities classroom, digital technology has become a useful tool and enhancing students experience. It has a highly positive effect and promoting greater interactivity. However, these new technologies, particularly the Internet, should not be use at all times because it could affect students and teachers intellectual exploration. Similarly, more and more humanities scholars use computers in the library and demand more content in their subject area thus library digital collections must expand. This is because humanities are about the humankind where works were created in various period, places, personalities, languages, and media in our history. Work Cited List Beisgen Beverly Ann & Kraitchman Marilyn Crouch, Senior centers: opportunities for successful aging, US: Springer Publishing Company, 2002 Borgman, Christine, Scholarship in the digital age: information, infrastructure, and the Internet, US: MIT Press, 2007 Brockman, William, Scholarly Work in the Humanities and the Evolving Information Environment, US: Digital Library Federation, 2001 Burniske R. W. & Monke Lowell, Breaking down the digital walls: learning to teach in a post-modem world, US: SUNY Press, 2001 Burton, Orville Vernon, Computing in the social sciences and humanities, US: University of Illinois Press, 2002 DeWit Donald, Going digital: strategies for access, preservation, and conversion of collections to a digital format, US: Haworth Press, 1998 Gordon Peter & Bunce Vincent. Teaching the Humanities. UK: Routledge, 1991 Inman James, Reed Cheryl, & Sands Peter, Electronic collaboration in the humanities: issues and options, US: Erlbaum Associates, 2004 Olah, Andrew George, A life of magic chemistry: autobiographical reflections of a nobel prize winner, US: John Wiley and Sons, 2001 Owens, Irene, Acquisitions and collection development in the humanities, US: Haworth Press, 1997 Siemens Raymond, Moorman David, Mind technologies: humanities computing and the Canadian academic community, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2006 Smith Deirdre, Humanities in the 21st Century Curriculum, available online at http://www.hums.org.uk/news/hums_21century.pdf Stevens, David Harrison, The changing humanities: an appraisal of old values and new uses, US: Ayer Publishing, 1970 Read More