I’m interested in how libraries can better serve digital humanities researchers as providers of data and source material. Specifically, as we make determinations for digitization, metadata, and interfaces, how can we optimize the content for discovery and use by digital humanities researchers? I’ve been thinking about this for archives/special collections in particular. I’m also aware of an RFP that the HathiTrust Research Center has put out that’s along these lines (www.hathitrust.org/htrc).

Has anyone else been thinking about how to boost discovery, access, and use of library resources (of any types and formats) for DH scholars? What have you been doing to connect these researchers to collections at your own institutions, and what more could we be doing collaboratively and/or at network scale?

In a recent tweet from THATCamp New England, archivist Andrew Berger asked: “Thinking about DH projects and discovery: do libraries put these kinds of resources in the catalog/discovery layer/etc? #THATCampNE.” Berger pointed to the University of Virginia’s catalog record for The Valley of the Shadow as an example of a cataloged DH resource.

How can libraries apply expertise in discovery, access, metadata, and publishing to make unique DH output findable? Do customs, standards, and best practices exist around discovery of digital humanities projects and complex objects? Are they emerging? As Saskia Scheltjens tweeted, are the projects the preferred cataloged resources, or would searchers “rather look for the data itself and the products resulting from #DH projects in an OPAC?”