On Creating a Usable Future

On Creating a Usable Future

Digital humanities

Jerome McGann’s focus in this essay is directed at how crucial it is to establish both research and online scholarship as we reconsider the humanities in the digital age. He highlights the “systematic institutional dysfunction” as the crisis in humanities. He believes humanities scholarship can be sustained through the cooperation of four institutional agents: scholars, publishing companies, professional journals and libraries. He questions the institutional commitment to the development of digital systems that are meant to replace print-based systems. McGann recounts his experience with The Rosetti Archive, which now “comprises seventy thousand digital files and forty-two thousand hyperlinks.” This archive includes high-resolution images of all known work by Daniel Gabriel Rosetti, including art and manuscripts. McGann discusses important issues in regards to work in the humanities and claims that scholars in the field all have the same need no matter the delivery system (digital or print) and that is to make cultural records inclusive, constant, and accessible. Having another archive to investigate, especially one that is interdisciplinary is vital to future research on creating archives.

McGann, Jerome

2011

Elena Rogalle

Journal article

McGann, Jerome. "On Creating a Usable Future." Profession (2011): 182-195.