In this workshop we will discuss the use of technology in the work of the humanities, also known as Digital Humanities (DH). We will discuss how faculty can us DH to archive historical documents, as well as how DH might be used to motivate students with different learning styles. For technologists, you will learn the tools many people are using to implement DH projects, and how you can help faculty think about historical data in the context of a DH project.

1. Digital Humanities
Mark Locklear
Web/Systems Administrator
Adjunct Instructor
johnmlocklear@abtech.edu
@marklocklear

2. Roadmap
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Define Digital Humanities
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
Markup Languages
GIS (Geographical Information Systems)
Data Visualization
Tools for Digital Humanities
Questions

3. What are the Humanities?
The study of human culture: Art, Literature,
History, Philosophy, Music, Social Sciences,
etc.

4. What is Digital Humanities
● The digital humanities is an area of
research, teaching, and creation concerned
with the intersection of computing and the
disciplines of the humanities.
● Using technology to do the work of the
humanities.
● http://docsouth.unc.edu/gtts/

5. Text Encoding Initiative
(TEI)
● An XML-based schema for marking up
texts
● Work began in 1987 with consortium
formed in 2000
● Currently in 5th major revision
● Formally endorsed by MLA & NEH

6. The problems TEI
addresses
● Facilitate scholars’ access to textual data
● Make preservation easier by using an
open, flexible, well-documented standard
● Supply a common format for
representing knowledge about texts
● Overcome platform dependence and
obsolescence

10. Markup (Language)
Information about a
text that exists
alongside that text but is
distinct from the text itself.

11. “Old School” Markup

12. Defining Modern Markup
“A (document) markup
language is a modern
system for annotating the presentation and
formatting of text that is separate from the
text itself.”

13. HTML Markup

14. Semantic Markup
• Separates document structure from
document display
• Asserts something about the nature of
each part of the document, i.e., it labels
components
• No display or processing instructions,
generally speaking

15. XML Markup

16. Display vs. Structure
(HTML display tags vs. semantic tags)
<FONT>
<person>
<COLOR>
<location>
<SIZE>
<lastName>
<B> <I> <U>
<flightNumber>

17. Examples
● http://www.wwp.brown.
edu/outreach/seminars/_current/handouts
/tei_samples/
The Swinburne Archive is a digital collection
devoted to the life and work of Victorian poet A.
Charles Swinburne.
● HTML View
● Raw XML
● Timeline

18. Geographical Information
Systems (GIS)
● Allows for plotting of data points on a map
● Allows you see patterns you may not
otherwise recognize
● Tools are ARCGIS, Google Maps and
openGIS

19. GIS Examples
● Altas of Early Printing
○ http://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/
● Beyond Steel: Industry and Society in
19th and 20th century LeHigh County,
Pennsylvania
○ http://gisweb.cc.lehigh.
edu/BeyondSteel/
● Caribbean Cholera Map
○ http://caribbeancholera.org

20. Timelines
A linear representation of data; events,
pictures, video, ect.
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http://www.timetoast.com/
http://timeglider.com/
http://www.tiki-toki.com/
http://timeline.verite.co/ (jquery)

21. Other DH Tools
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TEI
GIS
Omeka (LAMP)
Wordpress/DH
Custom

22. Data Visualization
Visual representation of information
that has been abstracted in some
schematic form.

23. Process of Data
Visualization
● Identify your data set
○ How large/small is the data set
○ What is the format
○ What is the complexity
● Analysis of data
○ Does the data need to be aggregated
○ If so, what tools will we use to process
it
● Visualize it
○ Identify what works for your dataset
○ It’s a process; wash-rinse-repeat

24. What can DH do for you?
Academics
○ View data in new and interesting ways
○ Get your data online (accessible to the public)
○ Motivate students of different learning styles
Technologists
○ Use your skills to solve interesting problems
○ Collaborate outside of technology
○ Use data in interesting ways

25. Resources
● http://digitalhumanities.unc.edu
● http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/
● http://omeka.org/blog/2013/08/20/back-toschool-edition-use-omeka-in-your-class/

26. TODO
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