The Digital Humanities Institute is one of the UK’s leading Digital Humanities centres, providing research and development services for the Arts and Humanities. Established in 1994, our mission is to support the innovative use of technology and computation within Arts and Humanities research as both a method of inquiry and a means of dissemination.
Partnership with internal and external clients
We collaborate with a wide range of academic and cultural organisations on funded projects in the Arts and Humanities in which there is a computational component or digital output. You can read about our expertise here. Approximately 50% of all our projects are lead by academic or cultural institutions outside the University of Sheffield. You can see a list of our partners here. As a partner we are able to offer:
- Assistance with project conception and proposal development to obtain funding.
- Planning and day-to-day management of your project’s data development process.
- Training research staff in all necessary technology and data development skills.
- Research and development of appropriate computational processes for manipulating and interrogating your data.
- Development of the digital output, from the prototype to the final deliverable.
- Long term hosting of the final deliverable as a publicly accessible website or data resource.
The DHI uses a day-rate when calculating its costs which has been agreed with UKRI. We normally collaborate using a ‘services rendered’ arrangement, and/or as a co-investigator when the project also involves significant technology research (e.g. developing new methodologies).
Online publishing service
We have been publishing and maintaining websites since the early 2000s. Before this date we used to publish on CD-ROM. Our oldest project is the Hartlib Papers, which started life before the DHI’s existence in 1989. Our oldest website is the James Madison Carpenter Online Catalogue, which went online in 2003. Although the aesthetics of website design will change over time, we ensure that everything we host remains accessible and functional thanks to our adherence to standards and ongoing maintenance.
We offer long term hosting of the digital outputs of projects on behalf of the lead institutions for a minimum of seven years, although in practise our websites are being hosted indefinitely. All our websites are tracked using Google Analytics, with our most popular site being Old Bailey Online which attracts seven million visitors a year. In most instances there is no charge for this service, and we will draw up a Hosting Agreement with you and your organisation which sets out the terms and responsibilities of the hosting arrangement.