• Open Stacks: Making DH Labor Visible

    Author(s):
    Laura R. Braunstein (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    TC Digital Humanities, TM Libraries and Research
    Subject(s):
    Academic libraries--Administration, Academic librarians, Digital humanities
    Item Type:
    Blog Post
    Tag(s):
    digital infrastructure, infrastructure studies, Academic labor, Academic librarianship
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M65525
    Abstract:
    In this post, I discuss how digital labor is organized in what I call a “stack”: the often invisible technological, social, and physical structures within which scholarship is produced and disseminated. I discuss the DH stack through three different frames: first, the technology stack of globalized computing; second, the social stack that manifests as institutional infrastructure; and finally, the physical library stacks that are a synecdoche for the information architecture that arranges scholarship. The post explores what these three frames–technological, social, and physical–could offer in terms of different ways to understand and reveal DH labor in the academy. At a time of political crisis, when the core values of libraries and access to knowledge are being challenged, we need to take responsibility for showing what we do. DH librarians, whose highly collaborative work is dedicated to social justice and public engagement, may be one particularly vital community of practice for exposing the changing conditions that create knowledge. How do we make labor in the “stack” visible?
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Online publication    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    Attribution
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