Digital Humanities Commons^™

Molding Childhood: Plastic’S Influence In Pediatric Care, Irene Zheng

SOURCE Explore Program

Plastics emerged after World War II as a material associated with progress, cleanliness, and possibility. In medicine, plastic replaced fragile glass tools and enabled inexpensive, standardized production of devices such as syringes and medicine dispensers. Yet the rise of pediatrics concerned itself with the emotional needs of children raises questions about whether this flexible material was used to create more child-friendly forms of care. Using materials from the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Plastics Collection at Syracuse University Libraries, including a plastic liquid medicine dispenser (“Medi-Server”), archival advertisements for Plastipak, glass syringes, and historical patents for pediatric medicine devices and …

University Ai At Work: The Impact On Personal Document Creation, Vanessa Reyes, Alec Mullender

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This international study examines the use of AI tools provided through university-issued platforms in the US and Canada. The authors aim to discover how embedded AI tools in the university workplace affect the daily creation of personal documents within their digital workspaces. Using University-Issued Tools, such as Outlook, Teams, and all other Microsoft Suite Products, this study places a hyperfocus on time, efficiency, accuracy, usability, functionality, and how the embedded nature of AI tools facilitates working conditions, functions, intentionality, and purpose.

Key research questions are: (1) How do embedded AI tools support daily work processes? (2) In what ways do …

Artificial Intelligence And The Palimpsestuous Nature Of Image Documents, Brian C. O'Connor, Laurie J. Bonnici

Proceedings from the Document Academy

We propose that document engagements are palimpsestuous - meaning emerges through layered interactions between viewers and documents rather than inhering within documents themselves. A photograph of a coffee mug prompts the question "Who's Blake?" for one viewer while evoking decades of family ritual, community relationships, and funeral flowers in ice cream containers for another. Traditional cataloging systems capture surface-level nouns (coffee mug, ice cream parlor) while systematically excluding the epidata and proximity relationships where meaning lives.

Through conversations with Claude.ai about photographs - including a Lewis Hine child labor image, everyday objects, and landscapes - we demonstrate that AI systems …

Editorial, Sascha Donner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

DOCAM 2025 was a special gathering for me personally. As Chair, I had the honor of welcoming our international community to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, an institution and a city whose rich history and vibrant intellectual spirit felt particularly fitting for the conversations we needed to have. This was DOCAM's first time at Humboldt University and its first time in Germany. I was fortunate to host it at the Berlin School of Library and Information Science, where the current Head of School, Vivien Petras, had already been part of DOCAM's earliest days. It was a very special occasion for her to …

Review Of Digital Literary Redlining: African American Anthologies, Digital Humanities, And The Canon, Tracy A. Fernandez Rysavy

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

From West Virginia To The World: Strategies For Digital And Archival Recovery, Sarah S. Walton

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

More Than Muses: Digital Archive As Pedagogical Tool, Valerie Hegstrom, Anna-Lisa Halling

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Recovering The Unobserved Works Of Feminist Educators Using Digital Archival Approaches, Jacquelyne Thoni Howard, Clare Daniel

Feminist Pedagogy

In 2020, we curated a bibliography about applying feminist pedagogical principles to online and hybrid learning environments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bibliography demonstrated that feminist educators, though largely unobserved in the national discourse around online learning, were already in conversation about how to apply feminist pedagogy online. This initial bibliography would later become the foundation of the Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online Guide, a digital humanities recovery project that has had lasting implications on our classrooms, communities, and teaching philosophies. The guide now serves as a digital archive that documents how feminist educators are adapting to new …

"In Her Own Words: Annotating A 19th-Century Southwest Florida Diary", Jordan L. Von Cannon

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

(Introduction To The Special Issue) Restoring Women’S Literary Past: Exploring Digital Recovery Pedagogy Through An Intersectional Feminist Lens, Alice Martin, Tracy A. Fernandez Rysavy

Feminist Pedagogy

In Roopika Risam (New Digital Worlds, 2018) and Lauren Klein and Catherine D’Ignazio’s (Data Feminisms, 2020) recent work, they call for more attention to the intersecting relationships between feminist practice, content, and technical specifications through an awareness of the ways the design and implementation of technology can exclude and objectify people. In response to this, we introduce a special issue on teaching digital recovery in the classroom, with a focus on recovering women writers of America through digital projects.

Mississippi Libraries Volume 87, Number 3 And 4

Mississippi Libraries

Complete issue of Volume 87, Number 3 and 4 of Mississippi Libraries.

Curriculum Materials Cataloged For Browsing, Michelle Emanuel

Mississippi Libraries

When the University of Mississippi Libraries acquired a collection of state-adopted school textbooks for K-12 from its School of Education, a decision was made to catalog the collection for browsing to anticipate the needs of its primary users, both “in service” and “pre-service” teachers. The textbooks would be grouped according to their grade level, and cuttered by subject area, instead of being classed according to its subject area. As the collection would be integrated into the regular circulating collection, and not into a curriculum materials center, issues arose for both technical services and access services throughout the process, from cataloging …

The Last Human Place: Efficiency Is Killing Libraries, Gabriel Morley

Mississippi Libraries

This essay argues that libraries should de-prioritize efficiency. Instead, libraries should promote their value around connective labor, which is the human work of attention, care, and emotional understanding. Libraries are increasingly dominated by automation, data metrics, and speed. This essay puts forward the idea that libraries should shift focus to human relationships as an organizing principle. Drawing on Allison Pugh’s concept of connective labor, this essay contends that human-to-human engagement is essential infrastructure, as vital as technology or buildings. Efficiency-focused metrics like circulation and attendance fail to capture the deeper social function libraries play in communities and on campuses related …

The Generative Turn: Ai And The Future Of Libraries, Deborah Lee

Mississippi Libraries

The Generative Turn introduces Mississippi librarians to the growing influence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and what it means for the future of library work. Rather than focusing on fear or hype, the column invites librarians to explore how tools such as ChatGPT or DALL-E can support creativity and professional learning. It explains how these systems differ from earlier forms of AI and how they can be used in everyday library tasks. The article highlights the librarian’s role in helping communities use these technologies responsibly while continuing to emphasize digital literacy. The column provides recommendations for books, online resources, conferences, …

Slis Notes: Building Advocacy, Stacy Creel, Sarah Mangrum

Mississippi Libraries

In 2016, the Pew Research Center found that 66 percent of adults believe that the public library has a positive role in their communities and believe in the educational role of libraries. Beyond education, respondents felt that libraries had a role in supporting businesses, technology, and other services, and were important parts of the community (Pew, 2016). Libraries continue to be “among the most trusted public institutions in our democratic society. Nevertheless, public libraries are struggling to regulate the library space as a space for all in democratic societies with increasing polarization” (Yamagishi, Koizumi, & Larsen, 2024, p. 1359). As …

President's Page, Matt Gully

Mississippi Libraries

Updates from the President of the Mississippi Library Association.

Front Matter

Mississippi Libraries

Front matter for Mississippi Libraries Vol. 87, Nos. 3 and 4.

I Wear The Past In The Cold, Cecilia Knaub

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“I wear the past in the cold” is a multi-modal archival project exploring themes of intergenerational memory and postmemory. A hand-knit sweater acts as an archive, encoded with metadata about a collection of newspaper articles written by my late father, as well as affectual elements of memory and grief. The accompanying website provides additional detail into the project and design choices. The piece builds on work from memory studies, craft studies, digital humanities, and critical data studies to create a tangible and personal archival object. By accepting the invitation from the #DHMakes movement (Visconti, Dombrowski, and Berger 2020) to embrace …

Postscript: A Digital Inquiry Into Inherited Memory, Alexander Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This Capstone project explores the intimate mechanics of family memory through digital interfaces and media, centering on a set of more than fifty letters my late grandmother wrote in 1947 during a four-month journey across Europe. Through a series of digital interventions — including mapping, text analysis, and interactive storytelling — Postscript captures the process of my own memory formation as I connect to my grandmother's legacy. The project specifically engages with digital technologies' unique affordances (like interactivity and nonlinearity) to interrogate how digital methods of analysis and expression can develop, as well as distort, modes of relationality and identity. …

Maintenance Mode For Digital Dwellers, Maci Morris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In an ever-expanding digital landscape that operates on the commodification of user-generated materials, whether through direct or “dark pattern” extraction, it becomes vital for educators to employ digital practices that normalize critical reflection about the creation and storage of digital content. These practices should create better understanding of the underlying infrastructure of content management and storage.

This capstone project, “Maintenance Mode for Digital Dwellers,” is an adaptable pedagogical guide that instructors can use to engage learners in strategies and systems for managing their personal digital materials. Participants are encouraged to engage with their digital maintenance and archival practices through a …