Digital humanities (DH) is the umbrella term that describes much of this work. It is neither a field, a discipline, nor a methodology. It is not simply the humanities done with computers, nor is it computer science performed on topics of interest to the humanities. DH is the result of a dynamic dialogue between emerging … Continue reading Special Report: Digital Humanities in Libraries
The University of Houston (UH) has more than 40,000 students from 137 nations. Among our undergraduates, 26.9% are Hispanic, 19.8% are Asian, 10.2% are African American, and 9.8% are international. Many of them are first-generation or nontraditional students. UH is changing from a commuter school to a flagship destination research university, and student success is … Continue reading Improving Retention
For practical purposes, the best-known definition of altmetrics, “the creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for analyzing and informing scholarship,” comes from altmetrics.org, a website set up by Priem and three of his colleagues. Since then, others have questioned the definition and the methods of calculating altmetrics in various scholarly … Continue reading Altmetrics, Bibliometrics
The second-wave feminism movement from the mid-20th century opened doors for women in educational and career advancement, particularly in academia, thanks in large part to Title IX legislation that prohibited discrimination at higher educational institutions. In 1972, the year Title IX was implemented, women held only 4.6% of high-level administrative positions at research libraries. By … Continue reading A Career of Our Own
The method is not new; literature classes traditionally follow a similar model in which students read assigned texts as homework and come to class prepared for discussion. The renewed focus is a result of technological innovations that allow instructors to transfer a lecture into something portable that can be viewed or listened to outside of … Continue reading Flipped Classrooms
Does this mean librarians aren’t important to most users’ library encounters? Of course not! We’re the ones making those virtual visits seamless for them. That said, I think there is great value in this high-tech world in creating high-touch services that put a human face on the library and remind patrons of the value librarians … Continue reading High Tech, High Touch
