Prompt: How do you interpret the digital humanities? Why do we archive? Have you used archives and/or digital humanities projects before? If so, what was your experience? What questions, issues, or topics do you want to explore using DH and archiving methods?

After completing a couple of digital humanities courses, I’ve come to realize that not everyone interprets digital humanities the same way. For me, I interpret digital humanities as applying modern computer technology to humanities subjects. This means using computational or digital tools, such as coding and website building, to help digital humanists analyze, preserve, and visualize cultural and historical information in ways traditional methods cannot.

Traditionally, methods like archiving are done through collecting physical materials, manually organizing and analyzing them, then storing them in places where they can be preserved and accessed by other researchers. Using modern technology, files can be scanned and accessed remotely through digital databases. This makes archiving easier and removes potential risks such as file deterioration or decay. Organizing and analyzing files are also made easier since digital tools and machines can categorize, filter, and identify patterns across large samples of data. This allows researchers to spend less time locating information and focus more on interpreting and drawing conclusions from archived materials. We archive to ensure historical and cultural materials can be preserved and valuable knowledge is not lost over time. Digitally archiving reduces risks of files being lost or destroyed, while allowing knowledge to be more accessible to the public.

I have never used archives before but have done multiple digital humanities projects in other courses. Most of my projects involved interpreting information I’ve gathered online and creating a database where others can also access and explore my findings. These databases are typically done through creating websites. The projects are pretty fun, and I would recommend digital humanities for people who like to work with a lot of data and build websites to showcase that data.

I look forward to working on new digital humanities projects and learning more about archiving methods. Although I am still unsure of what topic I would like to explore, I hope to create something fun and engaging that people can learn from.