After two long months of struggling, laughing, and occasionally, working productively, the Digital Scholarship Internship has ended. The project I ended up working on was definitely not something I could have imagined in the beginning. But with the help of all the librarians and research assistants and special archives people, I learned a lot more about digital tools than I could have imagined and a lot more about the history of Amherst College than I ever cared to know. I am ~quite~ satisfied with my project, although I hoped that it would disappear quietly into an Internet black hole after its completion. More importantly, I am happy to have met so many people working at the library, I am happy to have worked so closely with my teammates, and I am happy that we made it. Now I can (maybe) give an answer to the question, “What is digital humanities?”
Here is a link to my project.
Dear future interns, who will probably be reading this post in your first week of your internship, here is some advice:
- Don’t worry too much what you’re going to do. It’s kind of like choosing your major: either you know or you don’t know, but eventually you will know.
- Start your WordPress site early.
- In fact, start everything early if possible.
- Look forward to giving a workshop on Gephi. By far the most useful tool you will use.
- Bring a jacket everyday.
- Most useful shortcut on WordPress is Command + K (unless you use PC – then I don’t know how to help you). If you highlight text and ^do that, you can add a hyperlink.
- Make sure you pick a project you enjoy. Otherwise, you are going to be spending a lot of time on a project you do not enjoy.
- Val repeats their menu even more frequently during the summer.
- Best time to go to lunch is 11:30 or 12:45.
- ^People might strongly disagree with the above, but don’t listen to them.
- Have fun! (Or not. Up to you.)
Sincerely,
This cat
