Presentation in context of workshop devoted to research support at LIBER 2017

1. Working with the Arts & Humanities
Creating a process manager digital scholarship in humanities
within the library
Demmy Verbeke

2. An ‘old’ dream
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January 2013:
white paper about the
support of DH in
libraries
April 2013:
‘Designing the Leuven
Library Lab (DH3L)’
Digital Humanities Spring Event,
Leuven

3. http://www.imagesbuddy.com

4. Implementation
actual start of “building”
Artes
January 2015
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July 2014
reorganisation of the library services for the arts & humanities (creation, on paper, of “new”
library division called Artes (in essence a merger of former smaller divisions), with a.o. the
intention to realise a new expert position within the library for a DH officer)
process manager digital scholarship in the humanities
January 2017
Artes goes live
December 2015

5. Context
Process manager digital scholarship in Artes does
NOT work in isolation:
- subject librarians Artes
- research coordinator Arts Faculty
- research coordinators HSS Group
- ULS Digitisation and Document Delivery
- ULS Metadata Services and Acquisitions
- ULS Research data management support desk
- ULS Open Access support desk
- LIBIS
As a modern-day scientific library, Artes
actively responds to the digital needs of
researchers and students affiliated with
the Groep Humane Wetenschappen
(Humanities Group). Thanks to close
collaboration with other services of the
KU Leuven Libraries, including a state-of-
the-art imaging lab and support offices
for Research Data Management and
Open Access, Artes houses substantial
expertise in the mechanisms of scientific
inquiry and (electronic) scholarly
publishing.
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6. Tasks
to support the academic workflow from the construction of initial data sets to the
valorization of electronic publications
• supporting education, training and courses in digital scholarship – e.g. teaching digital
literacy to BA students and PhD students at the Faculty of Arts, supervision of
internships for the advanced master Digital Humanities
• organizing events that make digital scholarship more accessible, including lecture
series and hackathons – e.g. Wikipedia edit-a-thon, workshop Jeffrey Schnapp
• helping humanities researchers find durable hosting solutions for their research data
and output
• assisting humanities researchers in writing grant proposals
• testing and providing support for new research tools, databases and techniques – e.g.
Daily Mail Historical Archive
• exploring alternative, electronic publication formats – e.g. OSEDHRI
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7. Selling points
• Better technical support, with more expertise, for less money
• Sustainability
“Collaboration with the university library is the only realistic option for
long-term sustainability of digital humanities projects in the current
environment.”
(William A, Kretzschmar – William Gray Potter, “Library Collaboration with Large Digital
Humanities Projects.” Literary and Linguistic Computing 25, no. 4 (2010): 439–45,
doi:10.1093/llc/fqq022)
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8. Secret convictions
• Providing the best possible service, by not providing a
service
• Job of process manager in Artes essential to make sure
the balance local-central remains satisfactory for
everyone and to capture needs of researchers
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