What does it mean for scholars to work in the “open”? How do they connect with their communities, publish their work, and what issues should they be aware of? How can libraries support and foster the open exchange of knowledge? These and many other questions were addressed at Beyond Open: Implementing Social Scholarship, a gathering in Victoria, BC hosted by INKE (Implementing New Knowledge Networks).

SFU Library ended Open Access week on October 27th with a panel called Open Beyond the Academy: Building Community Through Open Social Scholarship, featuring Dr. Hannah McGregor (SFU) and Dr. Raymond Siemens (UVic). This panel aimed to discuss the ways digital humanities work is accessible and accountable to non-academic communities.

The term Open Scholarship refers to the practice of making academic research and education freely available to both other members of the academy and the public. For many scholars, educators, librarians, and students, Open Scholarship represents a positive direction for the academy as a place of public access, inclusion, and engagement. Openness does, however, present challenges, and on October 26, 2017, panelists and participants gathered at BCIT to discuss these challenges and how to remain mindful of them.

In partnership with KEY, SFU’s Big Data Initiative, the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab was pleased to welcome Dr. Mark Algee-Hewitt on September 22, 2017. Mark is an Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and English at Stanford University, and the Director of the Stanford Literary Lab.

The Digital Humanities Innovation Lab kicked off its Fall 2017 DH Café series on September 19 as Dr. Juan Pablo Alperin introduced participants to the online annotation tool hypothes.is. Juan is an Assistant Professor in the Publishing Program at Simon Fraser University, and the Associate Director of Research with the Public Knowledge Project.

On May 4-5, 2017, the SFU-UVic Digital Pedagogy Network met in Victoria to share the ways they teach and learn in the digital humanities. In the newly-opened Digital Scholarship Commons at the UVic library, students, librarians, faculty members, and community partners gathered to present their research and projects, address opportunities and challenges in creating virtual and material communities, and discuss best practices in the DH classroom. Workshops made teaching and learning hands-on as leaders helped participants gain skills using different digital tools, environments, and resources. 

In honour of Freedom to Read Week (February 26 - March 4, 2016), an annual event established by the Book and Periodical Council that “encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom,”1 the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab (DHIL) has put together a series of visualisations showcasing a selection of challenged books in Canada as well as banned and censored authors all over the world.. The project serves to highlight the pervasiveness of censorship among some of the most beloved and important works of literature and places them in the context of the times and places in which they were banned or censored.

On January 26, 2017, the SFU-UVic Digital Pedagogy Network hosted a one-day Student Digital Showcase at SFU Harbour Centre in Vancouver. This event brought students in English and Publishing departments from Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Toronto to present their digital humanities research, projects, and pedagogical practices.

On January 25, 2017, SFU Library's Research Commons and Digital Humanities Innovation Lab held a follow-up workshop to the Podcasting for Scholarly Communication workshop. Hannah McGregor led the Intermediate Podcasting workshop and is an assistant professor in Publishing@SFU as well as the co-host of Witch, Please, a scholarly podcast about the Harry Potter world.