Bamboo Planning Project Theme Database

This database houses quotes from the Bamboo Planning Project workshop-1 series held between April - July 2008. Participants included scholars, librarians and information technologists who identified discrete scholarly practices and needs from their own perspectives; these are documented as quotes in this database. The quotes were analyzed and organized into themes of scholarly practice. A full report of this analysis can be found here.

Along with the quotes, this database includes 1) associated themes related to each quote, 2) the question that elicited the quote, 3) the workshop at which the quote was given, and 4) a persistent url for referencing each quote. The questions posed to the participants are documented in the right-hand panel. Selecting one or more themes in the text box will return the quotes associated with a particular theme(s). To select more than one theme, hold the control (Windows) or command (Mac) key while selecting themes. Further, to download the entire database or a specific result set in XML or CSV format, select the appropriate orange button at the bottom left of your screen.

Quote	Workshop	Question	Themes	Tags	URI
Promote interoperability of data & tools - on the basis of relatable ontologies	1b	1	Gathering / Foraging	data, interoperability, taxonomies, tools	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/88
One strength in A&H is sheer open-endedness of it, people cross boundaries all the time. One of my fears (lib and it background)---in those fields solve problems of the past, workflows, concern that will try to solve enterprise problem, contrary to exploratory serendipitous nature of A&H.	1a	1	Gathering / Foraging	a&h, boundaries, enterprise problem, open-endedness, workflows	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/193
Database thinking: how can you fit all these different pieces into a central store, so that others can reorganize the same information in ways that help them	1b	1	Gathering / Foraging	central store, database, reorganize, thinking	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/197
You can now find things that you never could have found before it has revolutionized scholarship Scholars who have skills to mine that data are coming up with ideas that seem crazy to those who lack skills to find and mine resources that were not available a few decades ago.	1b	1	Gathering / Foraging	resources, revolutionized, scholars, scholarship	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/198
Need for the primary material is enormous: demand increasing faster than the digitized collections can supply. Students want/expect to be able to find 1920s Irish newspapers, and 1950s Chinese census data, etc., etc., instantly available on-line.	1b	1	Gathering / Foraging	census data, collections newspaper, digitized, primary material	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/199
Search across multiple digital collections. Finding aids are inconsistent. There are finding-aids and finding-aids.	1b	1	Gathering / Foraging	collections, digital, finding aids, multiple	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/200
Being able to find content is key. Being able to discover existing tools is key. Being able to learn how to use available tools is key. Develop particular kinds of interfaces that are standardized for canonical activities in A&H scholarship. Glue that cuts the learning-about-tools barrier for A&H scholars. Recognition that standard does limit function, but if the entry-point is easier and more sophisticated (in terms of functionality) that would be a win.	1c	1	Gathering / Foraging	a&h, canonical, existing tools, interfaces, key, scholars	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/201
Hard to find tools---other people's custom tools are based on different assumptions	1c	1	Gathering / Foraging	custom tools, hard to find, tools	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/202
Maybe Bamboo can help searching/understanding what's going on, but focused on ways of research rather than discipline names	1c	1	Gathering / Foraging	bamboo, discipline names, research, searching, understanding	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/203
Good w/ indexing text, nothing satisfactory with indexing images. How to derive meaning	1d	1	Gathering / Foraging	derive, indexing images, indexing text, meaning	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/204
Images, audio, data, gen Chinese culture at [large university]. Try to archive my doc video; tools so cumbersome. Video, so complex. How do you make that available so that it doesn't anticipate or impose categories that may not be intuitive.	1d	1	Gathering / Foraging	audio, categories, Chinese culture, data, doc video, images	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/205
Digital technology shapes practices, changes content	1d	1	Synthesizing / Filtering	content, Digital technology, shapes practices	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/208
keeping up with the rate of proliferation of digital data	1c	1	Synthesizing / Filtering	digital data, proliferation, rate	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/267
data flows in so fast, how do you organize it?	1b	1	Synthesizing / Filtering	data, flows, organize	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/270
Separation of communication or archival needs with current solutions.	1c	1	Managing data	archival, communication, separation, solutions	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/441
want to see program reflect in importance for given data, so certain info given more weight, certain author given more weight, etc. need to have databases conceptually linked.	1b	1	Synthesizing / Filtering	author, data, program, weight	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/272
ITunes for my articles. Indexing, referring, recommending for scholarly articles.	1b	1	Synthesizing / Filtering	indexing, ITunes, scholarly articles	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/273
For a humanist, what happens at scale? You must screen the backfill. It's only 14th century; we're going for Rome.	1c	1	Contextualizing; Synthesizing / Filtering	backfill, humanist, Rome, scale, screen	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/274
Museum curators provide one way of classification, invite help from public to do tagging that the public finds relevant	1c	1	Synthesizing / Filtering	classification, museum curators, public, tagging	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/276
We live in an outcome-focused world; process is valuable.	1c	1	Documenting methods	outcome-focused, process, world	https://themes.projectbamboo.org/node/316

Bamboo questions

Question 1
What do you hope Bamboo will accomplish? What questions do you have regarding Bamboo?

Question 2
During a really good day, term, research cycle, etc. what productive things do you do in relation to humanities research? How do you accomplish that task/practice?

Question 3
What are common themes that have emerged from your exploration of scholarly practices? Based on your discussion of scholarly practices, what are two themes that piqued the curiosity of those at your table, or are uncommon? What makes these themes common and uncommon?

Question 4
Unpacking a Commonality. What discrete practices are involved in this theme? What outstanding issues need to be addressed in regards to this theme?

Question 5
Unpacking the Uncommon. For whom/which disciplines or areas of study is this theme helpful? What discrete practices are involved in this theme? What outstanding issues need to be addressed in regards to this theme?

Question 6a
Identify Future Scholarly Practices. When you look at new-hires or up-and-coming graduate students, what practices do they use that are different from yours?

Question 6b
If you had a magic wand, what would make your day, term, research cycle more productive in relation to research?

Question 7
Discuss which future practices / activities you think would be best supported by a consortial effort like Bamboo and explain why.

Tags

Bamboo questions