UCL Centre for Digital Humanities
Encyclopedia
The UCL Centre for Digital Humanities is a research centre within the Department of Information Studies of University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. The Digital Humanities is a multidisciplinary field at the intersection of the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

 and information science
Information science
-Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...

. Starting in September 2011, the Centre will offer a new Masters programme in Digital Humanities.

History

The Centre was opened on 1 February 2010, with a launch party on 20 May. At the launch party the inaugural Centre for Digital Humanities Lecture was given by James Murdoch
James Murdoch (media executive)
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and currently serves as chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, Europe, and Asia, overseeing assets such as News International , SKY Italia , Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV .He sits on the News...

, the EMEA
Europe, the Middle East and Africa
Europe, the Middle East and Africa, usually abbreviated to EMEA, is a regional designation used for government, marketing and business purposes...

 Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

. The speech attracted considerable media coverage due to its criticism of the British Library's
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 plans to digitise its national newspaper collection.

The Centre was introduced to the Digital Humanities community at large by Melissa Terras in her keynote address at the Digital Humanities conference
Digital Humanities conference
The Digital Humanities series of academic conferences is generally considered the most prestigious in the field of digital humanities. It is hosted by Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations and has been held annually since 1990. It attracts hundreds of international attendees...

 in London on July 10.

Research

A number of research projects at UCL
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

 are associated with UCLDH:
  • Assyrian Empire Builders and State Archives of Assyria Online study the mechanisms of communication between the top levels of authority in an ancient empire.
  • CELM: Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts is preparing a free on-line record of surviving manuscript sources for over 200 major British authors of the period 1450-1700.
  • DHOER: Digital Humanities Open Educational Resources is creating a range of introductory Digital Humanities teaching materials and making them freely available.
  • Digital Lives focuses on personal digital archives and their relationship with research repositories.
  • eSAD: e-Science and Ancient Documents aims to use computing technologies to aid experts in reading ancient documents.
  • Humanities Information Practices studies the range of information behaviors in the humanities.
  • INKE: Implementing New Knowledge Environments proposes to design new digital environments for reading and research in the humanities, and for the general public.
  • LinkSphere is creating a single virtual interface for searching across the repositories and collections held by the University of Reading
    University of Reading
    The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

    .
  • Livingstone Online provides access to the medical and scientific writings of the missionary, doctor and African explorer David Livingstone
    David Livingstone
    David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...

     (1813–1873).
  • Open Learning Environment for Early Modern Low Countries History aims to turn a comprehensive survey course in Early Modern Low Countries history into an educational online resource.
  • Reassembling the Thera Frescoes assists archaeologists and conservators by digitising excavated fragments of wall paintings which have been preserved in volcanic ash since the sixteenth century BCE.
  • Sitelines studies how rapid map authoring can support recovery after brain injury.
  • TEI by Example is developing an online resource for teaching TEI (Text Encoding Initiative
    Text Encoding Initiative
    The Text Encoding Initiative is a text-centric community of practice in the academic field of digital humanities. The community runs a mailing list, meetings and conference series, and maintains a technical standard, a wiki and a toolset....

    ).
  • The Bentham Project is preparing a new definitive edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham
    Jeremy Bentham
    Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...

    , the utilitarian philosopher, jurist, economist, political theorist and social reformer.
  • Transcribe Bentham is an effort to aid the transcription of Jeremy Bentham
    Jeremy Bentham
    Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...

    's work by allowing volunteers to contribute.
  • The E Curator project explores the use of 3D colour scanning and e-Science technologies to capture and share very large 3D colour scans and detailed datasets about museum artefacts in a secure computing environment.

External links

  • UCL Centre for Digital Humanities website
  • UCL Centre for Digital Humanities blog
    Blog
    A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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