I’d like to have a working session to pick the brains of other campers on ideas for overhauling NYU’s Literature, Arts, and Medicine database. The database has thousands of annotations on various works of literature, art, theater, and film that relate to the practice of medicine, and it’s very much in need of an overhaul. Specifically, right now the database is very much in a pre-social web format, and I’d like to discuss ways to integrate and engage user participation to move the site away from a “static repository of information” model and towards an active, dynamic, collaborative platform for showcasing the combined efforts of humanists, medical professionals, artists, and developers. I’d also like to discuss sustainability and how to make the database a self-supporting entity that doesn’t rely on grant funds. I would love to hear from anyone who is involved or has been involved with similar projects, or knows of anyone doing something similar that I might be able to learn from.

I agree that a general discussion on DH in the classroom, broadly under the concept of “DH pedagogy” would be useful. I would propose the following issues for discussion:

1. Lesson plans and learning outcomes: incorporating DH in the classroom
2. Student projects: ideas for structuring a realistic outcome
3. Applications and tools: for both students and instructors
4. Assessment: grading more than just content
5. Resources: publications and community engagement, beyond just the tools
6. The teaching environment: the classroom, the library, the lab

These are just a few basic things to start. I welcome any additions, suggestions, criticisms and comments.

THATCampNY 2012 (TCNY) will take place on October 5 and 6 on the campus of Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City. TCNY will be a space for librarians, archivists, researchers, scholars, and computer scientists working within the digital humanities to explore ways to foster collaboration among themselves and libraries, archives, academic institutions, and other information centers.

Some of the emphasis this weekend will be on ways research collections based in New York City and the greater metropolitan area can be exploited to inspire new digital humanities scholarship or to strengthen current projects, but any collection or project is of interest.

Workshops will be available for participants who wish to learn more about specific tools, skills, and platforms for digital scholarship.

For more information about TCNY, write the organizers at thatcampny [at] gmail [dot] com .

Feel free to propose workshops and sessions via All Our Ideas below!