Week 1: Introduction

Hello All! 

I'm a second year LIS student and in my final semester at the iSchool. Throughout my time in the M.I. program, I've steered my course choices and work experience towards building skills for a career in academic librarianship. I'm interested in INF2133, the Future of the Book, to gain a better understanding of the debates, practices, and futures of the digital humanities. Libraries, in many cases, play an important role in leading, supporting, and preserving digital humanities projects. In part, I'm interested in how libraries do this. I'm also looking forward to the Encoding Challenge assignment. I want to brush up on my (very basic) XML skills and learn the standards of the Text Encoding Initiative in order to gain a better understanding of the potential and diversity of digital humanities projects. 

I'm also interested in engaging in a completely new intellectual tradition and discipline for me--the history of the book. The first week's readings offered a fascinating introductory understanding of the debates taking place in the fields of the history of the book and digital humanities. The future of the book seems to evoke a lot of commentary (its supersession of the book, the demise of the book, privileging new technology over old technology, etc.) from scholars and public intellectuals from a wide range of disciplines. I found Duguid and Drucker helpful in allowing me to broach a more nuanced understanding of the future of the book. I wish to continue to engage with and understand the debates within this field of scholarship throughout the term.