Now in its eigth, the LibLab Fellows program is an experiment in library-based learning guided by a critical consideration of just what we mean by “the digital.” Fellows engage theory and practice of digital scholarship through open lab hours and weekly discussion meetings during the fall semester and spring semester
Week 1 - September 14: Introductions and framing
An introduction to the terrain.
From the physical to the digital. What new information is gained? What is lost?
Readings:
Week 2 - September 21: Do Artifacts Have Politics? + Text
What can things do? Considering the perspective of Science and Technology Studies. Are the technologies that we will study neutral? In other words, is the saying: “it depends how you use the tool that matters” universally true or is technology inherently biased?
Readings:
- Winner, Langdon. “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” from The Whale and the Reactor (1986).
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Biss, Eula. “Time and Distance Overcome” from Notes from No Man’s Land (2009).
- Letter press demo
Week 3 - September 28: Code + AI
What lies beneath the technologies we use everyday? Investigating the human and computer labor that fuels the web services we rely on.
- Hui, Yuk. ChatGPT, or the Eschatology of Machines
- Dzieza, Josh. AI Is a Lot of Work: As the technology becomes ubiquitous, a vast tasker underclass is emerging — and not going anywhere.
- Moderator Mayhem
Week 4 - October 5: Metadata / Data
Can data be neutral? What are the ethical considerations of collecting and analyzing data?
Lisa Gitelman and Virginia Jackson write in the introduction for “Raw Data” Is an Oxymoron,
“Data need to be imagined as data to exist and function as such, and the imagination of data entails an interpretive base.”
What do you think when you hear the term “raw data”?
- Gitelman,Lisa & Jackson, Virginia.Raw Data is an Oxymoron: Introduction
- D’Ignazio,Catherine & Klein, Lauren. Data Feminism: Chapter 1 The Power Chater
- Guest speaker: Emily Higgs Kopin, Head of Digital Collections Strategy)
Week 5 - October 12: Network + Internet
Before we can go further into networked technologies, we ought to have a starting point - What do we mean when we say internet? What makes it different from other forms of information technology?
- Visions for the Future Internet A collection of essays, short stories, poetry and art work reflecting on the question of what is the internet and its history. As you browse the site focus on one section (Timeline, Enter, Power, Shift, Delete, ALT, Escape) that most interests you. Come prepared to share your thoughts and opinions
- Doc-Humanity Revolution: What is the web.
Week 6 - October 26: Search + Alogrithms
- Underwood, Ted. Theorizing Research Practices we Forgot to Theorize Twenty Years Ago
- Algorithms of Oppression - 16 min video
- Postcard from the Volcano: On the Future of the Library Print Collections
Week 7 - November 2: Accessibility
Can we democratize knowledge? How can we make information more accessible for everyone?
- Guest speakers: Jessica Brangiel, Electronic Resources Librarian & Jenn Moore, Course Content Accessibility Manager
Week 8 - November 9: Language of Visualization
Can we move beyond pleasing images representing data to and understand that visualizations are a language in themselves? In other words, rather than just understanding visualizations as representations of data can we understand them as data?
In this process, what do we gain access to and, oppositely, what is effaced or made invisible?
- Drucker, Johanna. “Graphical Approaches to the Digital Humanities.” A New Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman et al. (2016): 290–302.
- 1969 “Mother of All Demos”
- Yau, Nathan. Visualizing the Unertainty in Data
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optional in class readingOsman, Jenna. from Motion Studies. PEN Poetry Series. November 25, 2015.
- Guest speaker: James Truitt, Digital Archivist
Week 9 - November 16: Maps
What are the politics of maps? How does the platform used to create and provide access to geographic information shape our understanding of space?
Week 10 - November 30: Surveillance and embodiment
- Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness
- Brunton, Finn & Nissenbaum, Helen. Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest. Chapter 3: Why Obfuscation is Necessary
Week 11 - December 7: Immersive Technologies
What role do emerging technologies play in higher education?
- Nakamura, Lisa. Virtous Virtual Realities
- DLFteach Toolkit Volume 2: Lesson Plans on Immersive Pedagogy
- Make your own avatar