[1] From: Patricia Galloway <galloway@mdah.state.ms.us> (16)
Subject: agonizing
I would remind those who worry about where computing humanists have
gone of Don Ross's prediction in the 70s (in the context of comments
on the need for a "computing" section in the Modern Language
Association) that the need for emphasis on computing in the humanities
would go away as computing tools became as naturalized in the
disciplines as were typewriters and printed books. It may be that less
visibility simply means that computing has been much more integrated
into practice and has become much less self-conscious. Certainly this
is true in archivy, history, and qualitative anthropology, the areas
where I have been most active over that time. Nobody in the agency
where I work could do their daily tasks, which include research and
analysis, without computers, which I, alas, am in charge of: maybe the
computing humanists of old have become overburdened computing
infrastructure providers for their modern counterparts! It seems to me
I've heard that sentiment recently from Lou Burnard...
Pat Galloway
Mississippi Department of Archives and History