Part of my meta-DH series documenting DH/DS infrastructure: the hows & whys of treating a project team, lab, department, or campus as itself a DH project.

Caveat: This post consists of notes taken during my former DH Librarian role at Purdue (2015-2017), rather than my latest thinking at Scholars’ Lab. I’ll be sharing that updated thinking here soon!

What workflows should I think through before the Purdue Libraries DH Lab can open its doors?

  • IP policy: okay to post work to GitHub? using what license?
  • Project management: Basecamp? Asana? Trello? something that can connect to GitHub, IFTTT or Zapier, or the Archives & Special Collections unit’s Drupal workflow if it’s created there
  • Code of conduct for events, interactions, collaborations, social media (including commitment to equitable representation via speakers and event participants)
  • How do new or learning coders participate in technical work?: Development/experimentation server, checklists for coders and whoever is approving moves to the production site
  • General server workflow: production, test, staff development, learner experimentation servers/VMs and flow among servers
  • Policy on what projects we host ourselves
  • Policy on best practices: usability, accessibility, public participation, outreach, research publication, technical stack (e.g. when possible build a static site)
  • Workflow for preserving projects: Webrecorder, BagIt, video of narrated exploration; LOCKSS; Purdue repo’s and Archives & Special Collections unit; workflow for collapsing dynamic sites into static ones
  • Sample contract for working with DH Lab staff: mutual agreements
  • Sample contract with Libraries IT concerning technical coverage and ASC on web archiving (if interested)
  • Web design and development checklist
  • Usability and accessibility checklist (web, events, publications)
  • Best practices doc for digital editions: who locates, transcribes/digitizes/proofs, uploads (as individual pages) text?; signed documentation of IP right for use of text?
  • Workflow for working with Archives & Special Collections artifacts: security, moving objects between offices/buildings
  • Workflow for staff adding resources, people, etc. to “DH at Purdue” site
  • Social media policy: tone, etiquette, access, schedule for Twitter, blog, Facebook
  • IT workflow (negotiating how we work alongside the Libraries’ existing IT team): meet early in project/grant design, accessibility/video captioning, service contract, data plan w/security, accessibility compliance, longterm hosting plans