Support for Digital Humanities Research in Academic Libraries: Case Studies in Special Collections

With the emerging prominence of digital humanities scholarship, academic libraries are taking steps to reevaluate approaches to research services. This study explores the nature of digital humanities research within the academic library setting, emphasizing special collections. The role of academic libraries is in flux with respect to the larger digital research environment. Academic institutions have varying definitions of digital humanities and offer a wide range of services for patrons working in the field, often necessitating an ad hoc support model.This study describes a questionnaire survey of academic special collections libraries nation-wide, and four semi-structured interviews with librarians in two public universities in North Carolina. Surveys and interviews were conducted to determine the types of research support requested by patrons related to digital humanities, and the various ways in which academic libraries accommodate those requests. ; Master of Science in Information Science