Representatives from across the Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee of the eight local universities gathered at HKBU for the Digital Humanities Symposium organised by the HKBU Library on 27 October. Two distinguished speakers from the Yale University Library were invited to share their valuable insights with participants.

Digital humanities is a dynamic and exciting field of research and teaching that explores the multi-disciplinary landscape of academia. Speaking at the symposium, Director of the Yale University Library’s Digital Humanities Lab Dr Peter Leonard elaborated on his interpretation of what digital humanities is and the reasons for setting up a Digital Humanities Lab at Yale University and many of its interesting projects. Associate Director for Access and Research Services at Yale University’s Robert B Hass Family Arts Library Ms Lindsay King went on to talk about how she employed text-mining techniques to extract meaning while working on the Robots Reading Vogue project. 

In addition, three HKBU faculty members also shared their digital scholarship projects at the symposium. Professor Kara Chan from the Department of Communication Studies, School of Communication spoke on her project entitled “Materialism among children and youth in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore”. The collaborative project by Assistant Professor of the Department of Geography Dr Kevin Lo with WWF-HK and Greenpeace, namely “Hong Kong Solar Map as a tool for facilitating the adoption of PV systems website”, aims at encouraging the adoption of solar photovoltaic panels in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Professor Ian Aitken from the Academy of Film, School of Communication took the audience through many of the elements of his project “Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia Research Programme“ and explained how he worked with the Library to achieve his goals.