Beyond Bibliography: Advanced Information Technologies, the Humanities, and the Library

Abstract

In keeping with ACRL's theme of "partnerships," this paper explores an evolving partnership between the library and computer-savvy humanities faculty regarding the use of advanced technologies for research and instruction. In many ways, librarians have always had partnerships with humanities faculty. Scholarship in the humanities has traditionally depended upon the printed word, both as the medium in which primary research is conducted and the means by which scholarship is disseminated. With the advent of digital technologies, however, printed text is no longer the only medium in town, and the computer screen increasingly supplants the printed page. Advanced information technologies such as http, digital imaging and multimedia, text encoding, and other computing applications have considerably expanded the scope and potential of humanities research. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to understand and integrate the advanced information technologies through which humanists are increasingly conducting and disseminating their research.