Databases are my friends. Every application that I use and care about has a database built into it somewhere: digital audio workstation, video editor, address book, calendar, to-do list (don’t forget online shopping…). Important research is predicated on the analysis of databases. Increasingly, many of my favorite works of art are driven by databases. I’m inspired by civic hacking projects made possible by the open data movement.

So why is it such a pain to create and work with databases? How come we still reach for a spreadsheet when we know darn well a database would be better? Would the world be a better place if everyone databased? Has the NSA made database a dirty word? What tools do we need to make databasing more like sledding?

Come share your love/hate experiences with databases. Teach us about your favorite tools for making life with databases more fulfilling. Let’s imagine together what will replace databases as we know them.

Why is it important to create digital editions for old manuscripts?  How do you do it?  What is the final product?  How many steps will it take?  What do you need to learn?  HTML?  TEI?  PDFs?  Is support available?

We (Connie Janiga-Perkins and Mary Alexander) would like to share ideas about how to best approach these kinds of projects and discuss the considerations involved.  We are happy to show parts of our project-in-progress, Digital Edition of Jeronima Nava y Saavedra’s Vida (1669-1727), as a jumping-off point (lib.ua.edu/digitalhumanities/jnysvida).  One of our biggest issues has been deciding how much to footnote and how much to “leave” as the author wrote it.

We would love to hear about your digital edition ideas, success, and challenges!