Germanists Discussion Group Minutes – 2015 Annual

ALA Annual Meeting, San Francisco

Germanists Discussion Group and Romance Languages Discussion Group Joint Meeting
Sunday, June 28, 2015
1:00 – 2:30pm

Conveners

  • Heidi Madden
  • Kristen Totleben
  • Brian Vetruba

Attendees

  • Heidi Madden, Duke University
  • Anna Shparberg, Rice University
  • Zach Coble, NYU
  • Brian Vetruba, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Jim Niessen, Rutgers University
  • Paula Carns, University of Illinois
  • Judy Alspach, CRL
  • Dick Hacken, Brigham Young University
  • Kizer Walker, Cornell University
  • Margaret Fast, Western Washington University
  • Rebecca Stuhr, University of Pennsylvania
  • Michael Scott, Georgetown University
  • Mara Blake, University of Michigan
  • Manuel Ostos, Penn State University
  • Claude Potts, University of California, Berkeley
  • Cindy Badilla-Melendez, University of St. Thomas
  • Erika Banski, University of Alberta
  • Molly Poremski, University of Buffalo
  • Libby Chenault, University of North Carolina
  • Mary Onorato, MLA
  • Andrea Malone, University of Houston
  • Jeff Staiger, University of Oregon
  • Andrea Ferr, Casalini
  • Rex Hatfield, Princeton University
  • Michael Printy, Yale University
  • Ann Snoeyenbos, Project MUSE
  • Jon Marner, Texas A&M University
  • Sarah Sussman, Stanford University
  • Sam Dunlap, UCSD
  • Katie Gibson, Miami University
  • Agnes Widder, MSU
  • Kristen Totleben, University of Rochester
  • Sarah Wenzel, University of Chicago
  • Kathleen Smith, Stanford University

Minutes

I. Welcome and Introductions

II. Discussion: Digital Humanities Infrastructure, Initiatives, and Tools in France and Germany

  • Sarah G. Wenzel, Bibliographer for Literatures of Europe & The Americas, University of Chicago, an overview of the DH landscape in France.
    • Handout: http://wessweb.info/wessimages/9/98/French_Landscape_of_Digital_Scholarship_Wenzel.pdf
  • Kathleen Smith, Curator, Germanic Collections and Medieval Studies, Stanford University, shared her experiences working at State and University Library in Göttingen in R&D and DH initiatives/infrastructure in Germany and with Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities DARIAH, TextGrid, Collaborative European Digital Archive Infrastructure (CENDARI), and the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI).
    • Presentation slides: http://wessweb.info/wessimages/f/f2/Smith_Kathleen_presentation.pdf
  • Zach Coble, Digital Scholarship Specialist, New York University, provided an overview of Digital Research Tools (DiRT), general DH infrastructure and subject specialists as DH collaborators.
    • Two presentations and a handout are attached with the permission of the presenters. Presentation slides: http://wessweb.info/wessimages/c/cd/Coble_Zach_presentation.pdf

III. Other Business

  • Planning for 2015/16: Michael Printy agreed to serve as co-convener (with Brian Vetruba) of the Germanist Discussion Group for 2015/16.
  • Kristen Totleben will convene the Romance Languages DG. The Romance Languages DG is actively looking for a co-convener for 2015/16, who could then take over as convener for 2016/17.
  • The Germanist and Romance Languages DGs have decided to meet together for ALA 2015/16 because there is a topic of interest to both groups: how can we make a case for foreign language collections in an era of data driven collection analysis?
    • We will start by understanding the trends that are shaping collection strategies for English language materials, and will together try to formulate foreign language specific arguments and strategies.
    • The assessment librarian at Yale will present assessment around Yale collections as a case study; and the head of collection development at Duke has agreed to be a discussant at ALA Midwinter in Boston.
    • Members are encouraged to share anecdotes, case studies, and readings with the conveners, Brian Vetruba, Michael Printy, Kristen Totleben, and Heidi Madden.