eScience and the humanities

摘要

Humanists face problems that are comparable to their colleagues in the sciences. Like scientists, humanists have electronic sources and datasets that are too large for traditional labor intensive analysis. They also need to work with materials that presuppose more background knowledge than any one researcher can master: no one can, for example, know all the languages needed for subjects that cross multiple disciplines. Unlike their colleagues in the sciences, however, humanists have relatively few resources with which to develop this new infrastructure. They must therefore systematically cultivate alliances with better funded disciplines, learning how to build on emerging infrastructure from other disciplines and, where possible, contributing to the design of a cyberinfrastructure that serves all of academia, including the humanities.