Preserving digital information is vital in a new era in which we create personal material daily such as photographs and emails that are ‘born digital’, and thus have no physical counterparts. In order to ensure that we the Columbia community can effectively preserve our personal digital histories and advise others on how best to do the same, the Columbia University Libraries/Information Services sponsored Born Digital: Personal Digital Archiving Week at Columbia, to discuss the ever-changing formats, technologies, and techniques within digital preservation and brainstorm the challenges, strategies, and action planning that lie ahead.
Events included Jeffrey Lancaster, Emerging Technologies Coordinator, discussing New Technologies in Personal Archiving; Robert Hilliker, Digital Repository Manager, Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, talking with CUL/IS staff about Personal and Research Archiving Support; and a panel discussion for CUL/IS staff on Challenges Our Patrons Face in Personal and Research Archiving.
Invisible College: THATCamp as Scholarly Society
Research Without Borders
April 5, 2012
How are THATCamp gatherings informing collaborative work between scholars and others interested in the digital humanities?
THATCamp (or The Humanities and Technology Camp), is an open, low-cost, collaboratively planned gathering for humanists, technologists, and others interested in working together on timely projects. THATCamp is an initiative of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University. Tom Scheinfeldt, Managing Director of CHNM, offers his take on the 40 plus THATCamps that have taken place around the world and discusses the forthcoming Proceedings of THATCamp—featuring output from these meetings—which will be built using a publishing tool developed in the same collaborative spirit.
Tom Scheinfeldt is Managing Director of the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) and Research Professor of History in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. Tom has lectured and written extensively on the history of popular science, the history of museums, history and new media, and the changing role of history in society, and has worked on traditional exhibitions and digital projects. In addition to managing general operations at CHNM, Tom directs several of its online history projects, including THATCamp, Omeka, and the September 11 Digital Archive.
This event, cosponsored by the Columbia University Digital Humanities Center and Scholarly Communication Program, is part of the Research Without Borders and Digital Humanities Center speaker series.
Standards and Strategies for Fair Use Decisions Inside Libraries and Universities
Half-Day Conference
March 27, 2012
Columbia University Libraries, the Copyright Advisory Office, and the Scholarly Communication Program presented the half-day conference "Standards and Strategies for Fair Use Decisions Inside Libraries and Universities" on March 27, 2012. The discussion goes beyond the question of fair use and delves more deeply into the means for making fair use decisions in an environment of unresolved law and changing needs and technologies. The panelists, through their range and depth of experience, demonstrate and explore options and strategies for making fair use decisions regarding research, teaching, and publishing within the academic community.
The panels feature a range of academic and professional experts including: Peter Jaszi, professor of law at American University; Brandon Butler, Director of Public Policy Initiatives at the Association of Research Libraries; Lisa Rose-Wiles, co-chair of the Copyright Action Group of Seton Hall University Libraries; Sheree Carter-Galvan, Associate General Counsel at Yale University; Robert W. Clarida, partner at Reitler, Kailas & Rosenblatt; and Gretchen Wagner, General Counsel, Secretary, and Vice President of Administration for ARTstor. Columbia University Libraries' Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, James G. Neal, opens the program. Moderator: Kenneth D. Crews, Director of the Copyright Advisory Office.
Protests, Petitions and Publishing: Widening Access to Research in 2012
Research Without Borders
February 28, 2012
How can access to important research and scholarship be available to all, not just “the one percent”? “Protests, Petitions and Publishing: Widening Access to Research in 2012” looks at how Occupy Wall Street, the Research Works Act (RWA), the boycott of Elsevier journals by a growing number of academics, and other recent developments are informing the debate over access to research and scholarship.
The Occupy movement resonated widely on college campuses in America and around the world when it began in Fall 2011 and reinvigorated discussion of socioeconomic inequality and increasing costs associated with higher education. Current debates about scholarly publishing have further echoed these themes. Two bills—the RWA, which seeks to end public-access policies to federally funded research, and the Federal Research Public Access Act, which seeks to expand the reach of these policies—are currently under consideration in Congress. In response, over 6,000 scholars have signed an online petition boycotting the scholarly journals published by the commercial publisher Elsevier, one of the major financial supporters of the sponsors of the RWA. Meanwhile, several societies have begun to address their membership’s concerns about publishing practices that may be seen to exclude scholars at all but the most wealthy institutions. Are scholars and publishers finally ready to change the process by which scholarship is distributed?
The speakers bring a variety of perspectives to the issue of access to research.
Allan Adler is Vice President for Legal and Governmental Affairs in the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), where he deals with intellectual property, freedom of speech, new technology, and other industry-related issues.
Gail Drakes is a doctoral candidate in the Program in American Studies at New York University and Associate Faculty at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her current teaching and research interests explore the ways in which copyright (and other forms of private ownership of information) serve to regulate access to the stories, sounds, and images that shape collective scholarly and public understandings of the past.
Alex Golub is assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His research interests include kinship and identity, resource development, and political anthropology. He is a founder of the popular cultural anthropology blog “Savage Minds.”
Oona Schmid is the Director of Publishing at the American Anthropological Association. She is responsible for the daily oversight and long-term planning around a complex publishing program that includes more than 20 specialized anthropological journals.
Peter Woit is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Columbia University and author of the blog “Not Even Wrong.”
This event is part of the Research Without Borders speaker series.
Answers to Your Questions About Copyright and Electronic Filing
February 8 and March 6, 2012
Copyright Advisory Office director Kenneth Crews and Academic Commons manager Robert Hilliker offer advice to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) students preparing their dissertations or theses for electronic filing. Questions may cover issues such as using copyrighted materials in a dissertation or thesis and the process for depositing work in Academic Commons. All members of the Columbia community are welcome.
Harnessing the Semantic Web for Scholarship
Research Without Borders
November 2, 2011
The Semantic Web links data to other data via machine-readable information. Scholars from a wide variety of fields are applying semantic technologies to their research. At this event, panelists cover examples of the scholarly use of linked data and its creation. The panel also consider how linked data is changing the process and outcomes of research.
Speakers:
Micki McGee, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Fordham University
Benno Blumenthal, Data Library Manager, International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University
Cristina Pattuelli, Assistant Professor, Pratt School of Information and Library Science
Data Management and Federal Funding: What Researchers Need to Know
Research Without Borders
September 27, 2011
New requirements from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other federal agencies have brought data management and sharing into the spotlight. This trend will continue as more research sponsors, and the general public, demand increased access to federally-funded research data. This event examines the goals of these requirements and explore the technical, scientific, and professional challenges resulting from efforts to preserve and share data.
Speakers:
Sayeed Choudhury, Associate Dean for Library Digital Programs, Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center at the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins University
Victoria Stodden, Assistant Professor of Statistics at Columbia University
Kerstin Lehnert, Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Your Dissertation: What You Need to Know About Copyright and Electronic Filing
Open Access Week 2011
Wednesday, October 26
Students at the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) must file their dissertations electronically, and a copy of each dissertation will be deposited in Columbia's online repository Academic Commons. This new requirement may change the way you prepare your dissertation for filing. Learn important information about your copyrights, using copyrighted materials in your dissertation, and depositing your work in Academic Commons. Bring your questions!
Speakers: Columbia Copyright Advisory Office director Kenneth Crews and Academic Commons manager Robert Hilliker. Introduction by GSAS Dean Carlos Alonso.
Beyond the Copyright Wars: Fair Use, Free Speech, and Reframing the Policy Debate
Open Access Week 2011
Thursday, October 27
VIDEO TO COME. A talk by American University Professor of Film and Media Arts Patricia Aufderheide, who is author, with Peter Jaszi, of the recent book Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright.
The definition of the digital humanities, or “humanities computing,” remains contested. Digital humanities scholars are a diverse group whose work is the result of cross-pollination among humanities scholarship, computer science, and digital media. Many well-known digital humanities projects apply tools borrowed from computer science—such as data-mining or geographic information systems—to works of literature, historical documents, and other materials traditionally in the domain of the humanities. But what do digital humanities scholars see as the potential of this interdisciplinary field? And what are the important theoretical and methodological contributions digital humanities can offer to both the humanities and the sciences?
