Understanding the information and communication technology needs of the e‐humanist

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to understand the needs of humanists with respect to information and communication technology (ICT) in order to prescribe the design of an e-humanist's workbench. Design/methodology/approach -A web-based survey comprising over 60 questions gathered the following data from 169 humanists: profile of the humanist, use of ICT in teaching, e-texts, text analysis tools, access to and use of primary and secondary sources, and use of collaboration and communication tools. Findings -Humanists conduct varied forms of research and use multiple techniques. They rely on the availability of inexpensive, quality-controlled e-texts for their research. The existence of primary sources in digital form influences the type of research conducted. They are unaware of existing tools for conducting text analyses, but expressed a need for better tools. Search engines have replaced the library catalogue as the key access tool for sources. Research continues to be solitary with little collaboration among scholars.Research limitations/implications -The results are based on a self-selected sample of humanists who responded to a web-based survey. Future research needs to examine the work of the scholar at a more detailed level, preferably through observation and/or interviewing. Practical implications -The findings support a five-part framework that could serve as the basis for the design of an e-humanist's workbench. Originality/value -The paper examines the needs of the humanist, founded on an integration of information science research and humanities computing for a more comprehensive understanding of the humanist at work.

Informationswissenschaft und Digital Humanities

“…Um den FachwissenschaftlerInnen im Bereich der Geisteswissenschaften geeignete Werkzeuge und Informationsinfrastrukturen zur Verfügung stellen zu können, ist es wichtig, ihre Ziele und Vorgehensweisen zu begreifen (vgl. etwa Audenaert & Furuta, 2010;Stone, 1982;Toms & O'Brien, 2008). Auch Wilson (2000) argumentiert, dass ein "total view of the information user" schwierig ist und jegliche partielle Blickwinkel genaue Definitionen der jeweiligen Ausschnitte erfordern.…”

Killer Applications in Digital Humanities

“…In particular, [Siemens et al, 2004, Toms andO'Brien, 2006] reported on a survey of "the current needs of humanists" and announced that, while over 80% of survey respondents use e-text and over half use text analysis tools, they are not even aware of "commonly available tools such as TACT, WordCruncher and Concordancer." The tools of which they are aware seem to be primarily common Microsoft products such as Word and Access.…”

Scholarly Needs for Text Analysis Resources: A User Assessment Study for the HathiTrust Research Center

“…The results of the study will help us assess the effectiveness of the HTRC, as well as make suggestions for development of future iterations of the HTRC's data services and toolkit. This paper builds on existing research into humanities scholars' use of digital tools (Frischer et al, 2006;Toms and O'Brien, 2008;Gibbs and Owen, 2012;Green and Courtney, 2015). While the interviews were conducted with specific focus on the HTRC, the results of our study point to opportunities for other large-scale data providers to develop solutions for allowing computational access to their content.…”