(Click the above picture to go directly to the DiRT Directory)
I know I have been using this blog mainly to promote the research and work I have been doing, but I would like to take a moment today to highlight my favorite digital humanities tool -- the DiRT Directory. In short, it is a tool full of tools! It lists relevant resources for virtually any digital research project at any price point, including free (the college student's favorite word). Tools can be filtered by specifying the actions users would like to take with regards to their data, such as "visualize data," "analyze data," or "add markup to an object." Another filter exists which theoretically would allow users to filter tools by the type of data with which they will be working, but it must be currently under construction because none of the links are working as of this morning. I will update this post if I notice any changes. Once an action is chosen, additional facets such as cost, license, and research objects (types of data the tool will be used to work with) can be chosen via drop-down menus to further narrow the results. Each result has a small blurb about the tool, the website, the code license, and date of last update, along with a clickable title which gives more information about the tool, such as developer, platform, and cost of use. This compilation of hundreds of digital humanities tools has been very helpful for me in my quest to become more familiar with current digital humanities technology and programs. I learned about the Directory through my digital humanities course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For several of our assignments, we had to assess and teach the class about a particular digital humanities tool, and the DiRT Directory was a great place to start looking for resources. All we needed to know was what we wanted to do with our data and which resources were free to use, and a long list of possibilities could be generated within seconds! I see this tool being useful to any scholar or researcher interested in doing any kind of digital research, but particularly those interested in digital humanities. One day I hope to teach the upcoming generation of humanities scholars about this tool in a library context, and I will continue to use it for my personal and professional growth until then. Additional link to DiRT Directory (click on image above or the following link): http://dirtdirectory.org/
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Today I gave a presentation on transgender needs in academic library spaces to a full house of interested UNC library staff members and School of Information and Library Science (SILS) students. It was a continuation of the ideas expressed in my poster (presented at the SILS Project Fair - see post from 4/10/15 for more information) and the underlying paper I wrote for my Seminar in Academic Libraries course.
In this presentation, using statistics, data from the literature, and screenshots to back up my claims, I covered why it is important to consider one's library's transgender population when writing policies, classifying/cataloging materials, and conducting daily library business. I also tackled the issues of cisnormativity* and the lack of gender non-specific restrooms, materials with transgender topics, and trained library staff in academic library spaces around the country. Finally, I spelled out what libraries have done so far for their trans patrons and provided recommendations for what else could be done at the local level to better serve one's transgender users. The presentation was extremely well-received, both in person and remotely; my slides were emailed to library staff members, and the praise I received from staff who were unable to attend but enjoyed reading through my slides was unrivaled. I believe today, many eyes were opened to an issue which was previously ignored or deemed irrelevant on a local level, and I hope I have helped make life a little easier for the next generation of UNC students by influencing policy and practice. *Cisnormativity = Pervasive and culturally-enforced assumption that all people are (and are supposed to be) cisgender, or identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. People who do not meet these socially-constructed expectations of gender are often pathologized or marginalized (Beemyn & Rankin, 2011). Reference Beemyn, G., & Rankin, S. (2011). The lives of transgender people. New York: Columbia University Press. |
PurposeThis blog is to highlight new and exciting research I'm conducting, presentations I'm giving, other relevant accolades, and research I wish to bring to your attention. Archives
May 2018
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