Week 3 Response - Opening the Victorian Library

After our first weeks discussion, it became clear that defining the Digital Humanities would be something that we created together all semester through our readings and exploration of the different websites. Although we all attempted to come up with our own definitions, here is what I came to realize. DH is not one specific thing, it is the combination of things born digital, things in print that are digitized, archives, collections, etc.
The articles for this weeks reading dealt mostly with the digitizing of libraries and digital libraries in general. The other two readings, both about Victorian literature discuss digital journals and digital resources for nineteenth studies. The two websites for Victorian Hubs seemed antiquated to our modern day standards. As I explored them outside of class it became clear that the websites were set up in order to place a large amount of information on the web, but have not really been updated since then in any real capacity. They are examples of the earlier type of websites that were created in an effort to digitize nineteenth century texts and resources. The newer websites that are examples of open digital libraries show how there can be a large amount of information displayed in a way that is still user friendly. Sites like Open Library and the Hathi Trust are sites that also allow the user to see how they update and run their sites whereas Google Books does not really explain how they scan all of their book in order to digitize them.
In the Besser article entitled “The Past, Present, and Future of Digital Libraries” felt overwhelming once I first finished reading it. It tried to explain metadata through the use of imaging and also how digital libraries were started and were they are headed in the future. The Walsh article was good for a survey of where publishing came from and where both DH and Victorian studies are going. One question that came to my mind is how exactly is digital information innovative? There seem to be different phases of DH, both to re-create core functions and not just to duplicate but to move beyond the digital realm as well. There also seemed to be an issue that most of the articles that dealt with copyrights and how to stop the use of unauthorized texts, the re-covery of texts, physical books vs. digital libraries. Another issue with the digitizing of libraries is the cost of upkeep for all the databases. One thing to keep in mind as we go forward with preparing to write our own proposals for grants is how long we would want the information on our sites to be available.