Read articles on analyzing text in historical documents, watch videos on digital innovations in the humanities from the 2012 WebWise conference, meet the winners of the 2012 Lukas Prize, and more in this week’s “What We’re Reading.”

Digital History

• Avalanches of Words, Sifted and Sorted
  Using computers to analyze keywords in digitized text has “enormous implications” for historians searching for big changes, patterns, and relationships within an archive, according to former AHA President Anthony Grafton, who tells the New York Times, “You can’t do this by using older, conventional means of reading books and taking notes.” Still, he notes, only humans can do the work of interpretation and careful reading.
• Illusionary Order: Cautionary Notes for Online Newspapers
  In the same vein as the article above, Ian Milligan explains the downside of searching for keywords in digitized newspapers.
• Webcast of WebWise 2012
  The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced last week that video of the 2012 WebWise conference, which included talks on crowdsourcing data, data visualizations, DIY archives, and more, is now available online. Be sure to click on each tab, Pre-Conference, Day One, and Day Two, to see all the videos.

News

• National Archives Announces Discovery of “Hitler Albums” Documenting Looted Art
  This past Tuesday, the National Archives “announced the discovery of two original leather bound albums containing photographs of paintings and furniture looted by the Nazis.”
• Winners of 2012 Lukas Prize Project Awards announced
  Congrats to AHA members Daniel J. Sharfstein, winner of the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and Sophia Rosenfeld, winner of the 2012 Mark Lynton History Prize.

Insights

• Our Secret Nonacademic Histories
  Alexandra Lord writes about her journey from PhD, to teaching, to a job in the public sector, to sharing her experiences at her website Beyond Academe, in this article for the Chronicle.
• The Academy in Peril
  Ben Alpers shares the key points from a talk he gave about the “Future of the Humanities.” His solutions: analyze, organize, advocate.
• Women’s history scholar prepares for “liberation”
  The Iowa City Press-Citizen features former AHA President Linda Kerber on the eve of her retirement, which she’s renamed “liberation.”

For Sale

• The New York Times Store
  Posted without comment, the New York Times has launched  a new store, selling “rare and newsworthy items,” including photographs from the National Archives, newspaper-related items, and “rarities” like a Civil War saddlebag for $13,000.

Contributors:  Debbie Ann Doyle, Elisabeth Grant, Allen Mikaelian, and Robert B. Townsend.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.