From Archives to Argument Symposium:
Day 4: Share the Knowledge
Providers, Promoters, Collaborators? Thinking about the Role of Academic Libraries in GDSL Landscape - Alexis Tindall
An explosion of digitised texts and collections of contemporary text sources provides huge new opportunities in text and data mining. New and exciting digital approaches to humanities research are emerging, sometimes at a rate that outpaces the capacity of potential users to consider them. Despite some practitioners bringing extraordinary digital proficiency to humanities research, with the skills and capacity to learn and develop new technological approaches, a role remains for no-code or low-code options for many users. Accessible, web-based, user-friendly tools provide an entry point for those interested in digital humanities but new to computational methods, for those trialling digital approaches that complement other forms of research, and for those wanting to test a theory or approach in an efficient and straightforward environment.

Academic libraries provide resources, information, skills, spaces, and initiatives to support information literacy. In 2021 this extends beyond books and articles to data, tools and devices. In recent years the University of Adelaide Library has provided the Gale Digital Scholar Lab for accessing and analysing digital archives. In this presentation we will discuss ways we promote this resource and support our users.

Source Libraries Q&A Panel Discussion
How do we measure the success of a digitisation project? Why are some initiatives open access whereas others involve a commercial partner? How do we make digital projects sustainable in the long term? This session will explore the decisions and challenges faced by libraries and archives when setting a digitisation strategy. Representatives from 3 major UK institutions - the British Library, the UK National Archives and Senate House - will share their perspectives and experiences.