A Universal Humanities Digital Library

According to Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan, the Google digitization effort indicated “the global library was under way. It was no longer a question of ‘whether’ but rather ‘how’ and when.’” ¹ This may be true in many respects, but, according to a recent survey by Martha Brogan, “while the texts of their trade are rapidly becoming available anywhere, anytime, humanities scholars, who might have much to gain from digital media’s potential to spread their scholarship, remain firmly committed to traditional forms.” ² Later, Brogan cites the paucity of sustainable business models for the creation of electronic humanities scholarship, particularly in American literature, saying that “publishers and librarians alike look to models such as the TCP (Text Creation Partnership) as the only economically viable way to produce high-quality, thoroughly edited and encoded texts.” ³ Therefore, it would appear that at least for the humanities, this dream of a universal digital library that Mary Sue Coleman envisions is little more than a pipe dream.