Digital Curation in the Digital Humanities: Preserving and Promoting Archival and Special Collections
| Date | 07 November 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-02-2016-0029 |
| Published date | 07 November 2016 |
| Pages | 1055-1055 |
| Author | Michael J. Parry |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Digital Curation in the Digital Humanities: Preserving and
Promoting Archival and Special Collections
By Arjun Sabharwal
Chandos
Oxford
2015
167 pp.
£42.75 soft cover
ISBN 978-0-08-100143-1
Review DOI 10.1108/EL-02-2016-0029
The convergence of new technologies in digital humanities, and the growing importance
of open access in the research arena, means that there is an increasing focus on how
archival and special collections are made available digitally, are curated and are
preserved. There are increasingly blurred lines between faculty, archives and libraries
within the digital humanities.
This book seeks to address the blurred lines. The work looks to, amongst other
things, present theoretical and practical perspectives on digital curation, explore the role
of social media within digital curation and explore collaboration and organisation
structures within digital curation.
The volume is divided into seven chapters or themes. First, it denes digital curation
within the digital humanities context, and it then moves on to placing archives and
special collections with the digital humanities. Next, it looks at curating digital cultural
heritage before going on to the more technical areas of information architecture and the
lifecycle of digital curation. The volume concludes by looking at the organisational
aspects that impact digital curation and how social media ts within the curation of
digital collections.
Each section is well-written, and although not exhaustive in its treatment, gives
enough detail and guidance for further research into digital curation. From the point of
a practitioner dealing with these issues on a day-to-day basis, I found it useful to refocus
my thinking and a reminder of what we are seeking to do with our collections.
Overall, I would recommend this as a useful primer for those who need an entry point
to digital curation, either as a practitioner or as a student. I will be keeping it within easy
reach for when I need to refresh my thinking about explaining elements of digital
curation to the curious.
Michael J. Parry
Library, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
1055
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