E-books

In an article recently published in the International Journal of the Book, John Warren of the RAND Corporation examines the pros and cons of e-books with three examples:

• I Want You! The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force (RAND, 2006) a history e-text that includes 1,700 primary-source documents linked from footnotes


• Pinzas de Metal (Metal Tweezers), 2003, by Tina Escaja, a hypertext novel that "presents the reader with a menu of choices in character, place, and object—the reader uses a magnifying glass to select one choice of each set and a brief text ensues, overlaying a jigsaw puzzle....In Escaja’s work, the reader becomes an active participant in the story."


• Digital textbooks. The authors cites Yale Books Unbound and Rice University's Connexions as examples of innovative collaboration in scholarly works.

Innovation and the Future of e-Books (pdf, 15pp/556kB)

Digital humanities

There is an Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Brett Bobley, ODH Director, this morning posted a paper, "Why the Digital Humanities?" (pdf, 3pp.), on its website. ODH was established in March 2008, its primary mission being "to help coordinate the NEH's efforts in the area of digital humanities." Bobley explains:

Let me expand on what I mean by “digital humanities.” We use “digital humanities” as an umbrella term for a number of different activities that surround technology and humanities scholarship. Under the digital humanities rubric, I would include topics like open access to materials, intellectual property rights, tool development, digital libraries, data mining, born-digital preservation, multimedia publication, visualization, GIS, digital reconstruction, study of the impact of technology on numerous fields, technology for teaching and learning, sustainability models, and many others.

Bobley also notes the massive digitization of cultural heritage materials, cyberinfrastructure (new technologies for humanities scholars), and the rise of digital humanities centers.