COMPUTER SCIENCE & THE HUMANITIES BUILDING BLOCKS

Interdisciplinary Studies

Field Committee Meeting

21 Dupont Circle, Washington, DC

June 22, 2000

MEETING REPORT

Attendees:

• Brenda Bickett, Middle East Studies Association (chair);
• David Block, Latin American Studies Association;
• William Bowen, Renaissance Society of America;
• Loree Jones, African Studies Association;
• Aaron Katchen, Association for Jewish Studies;
• Nathaniel Knight, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies;
• Michael Coventry, American Studies Association;
• David Green, NINCH.

1. INTRODUCTION

David Green provided background and news to the Committee, principally confirming the dates (9/20-24) and the place (Wyndham Hotel) of the Workshop and two full-color documents with the proposed agenda and list of participants. He also reminded us of NINCH's two-tiered purpose: a first phase where humanists define their activities and identify a set of viable, visible projects and a second phase that involves close collaboration with computer scientists to establish a long-term research agenda.

2. QUESTIONNAIRE

We did a round robin reviewing the questionnaire responses. Nathaniel Knight is preparing a summary of these.

3. FIELD MEETING AGENDA: COLLABORATION & DOCUMENT LIFE CYCLE

Our major focus turned around support for collaboration as a theme for the Workshop. For a variety of reasons, we are particularly attuned to the need to address cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, multi-language issues and to explore the ways that digital technologies can engage them. We identified web sites that illustrate various models of collaboration, the University of Virginia's Crossroads project <xroads.virginia.edu> and the Brazilian Government Documents Project at the Center for Research Libraries <wwwcrl.uchicago.edu/info/brazil/index.html>. We also talked about the possibilities of collaborating with researchers and documentalists outside the developed world to mount projects of mutual benefit.

We would, further, like to explore how a collaboration of humanistic research and technology would enable the linking of bibliography, texts, sounds and images both to locate connections among these genres and to disseminate work that creatively unites them. Finally, we are concerned with emphasizing public dissemination of humanities work (especially in the K-12 setting) and with attending to the standards (non-Roman scripts and metadata that describe digital files) that will govern information exchange.

William Bowen suggested that we might offer a proposal that models a document life cycle, similar to the following:

1. Introductions
2. Brief discussion of the survey and proposed agenda which revolves around document-based teaching and research in interdisciplinary studies
3. Set goals:
   1. - identify issues pertaining to access and use of documents
   2. - specify short-term goals and projects
   3. - specify long-term goals
4. Access to documents
   1. list wide range of issues even though not all may be pursued:
      1. - political issues
      2. - financial issues
      3. - technological issues
      4. - finding tools (print and online)
5. Use of documents in teaching and research
   1. - model of traditional solitary teacher and/or scholar
   2. - assisting the traditional model:
      1. - searching documents and relationship to finding tools
      2. - multilingual documents
   3. - newer models:
      1. - collaborative projects
      2. - non-linear/narrative models
6. Define projects
   1. example of shape of short term project:
      1. create digital library with materials appropriate to some/all members, such as pre-1700 documents pertaining to the contact of European and non-European cultures (from both points of view); include multilingual and multimedia documents;
      2. develop model for intelligent searches from bibliographical level to document level;
      3. take into account challenges of accessibility;
      4. develop ways for individuals or groups to work with documents, that is, to wrap their own commentary/notes/teaching materials around the documents
   2. example of shape of long-term project:
      1. similar to above but focus on new models for teaching and presenting research in a web environment

4. PARTICIPANTS

Using David's matrix, we reviewed workshop participants who had confirmed their intent to attend the September meeting and made suggestions for participants and alternates for a few of the "types."

5. TO DO

• Decide on the last three slots for our Workshop participants&emdash;e mail nominations and vitae to Brenda
• Identify two facilitators for Workshop meetings, from within the Committee.

Respectfully,

David Block

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