Roundtable : Expanding Computational Research of Born- Digital Collections

Roundtable : Jefferson Bailey, Ian Milligan, Rachael Samberg,
Valérie Schafer and Matthew Weber

As the extent and diversity of born- digital digital collections expands, and new digital
methods of scholarship are more widely adopted, opportunities have emerged for how researchers and librarians can work together to support computational approaches to using born-digital collections. This roundtable will feature discussion by a diverse set of scholars, faculty administrators, librarians, and product and policy leads, expounding on different strategies and programs for supporting text and data mining and other data-driven uses of large born-digital collections.
Participating scholars and digital humanists will describe how research methodologies are changing in light of the ability to interpret large volumes of web archives and born-digital collections as datasets and how these collections are enabling new forms of scholarly knowledge creation. Faculty research administrators will discuss work cultivating early-career scholars’ digital methodologies in support of disciplinary
work that builds research communities and expands the study of contemporary born-digital archives. Library-based product directors and legal experts will describe how growing born-digital archives, changing research methodologies and technologies and law and policy issues inform the development of new products, guidance, and educational initiatives that facilitate text and data mining of heterogeneous, transnational, large-scale collections.
Together the roundtable participants represent a diverse set of senior-level staff/researchers with decades of work to build and expand computational access to, and use of, born-digital archives. The roundtable will provide expert commentary on the skills, methods, products, and training needed to conduct and support emerging
forms of research. Roundtable members will give short presentations and engage in a group discussion with a focus on audience engagement and questions and answers. Overall, the roundtable will highlight innovative research approaches and summarize product and educational work to advance computational scholarly use of born-digital heritage collections.