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Digital

Computing Lab
and Other Resources

The Humanities Center's computing lab provides a space for Fellows and Research Workshop Coordinators to meet and work. The lab is equipped with G5 computers, projectors, scanners and a long list of software intended for digitizing materials and for editing and authoring digital content.

Lab Staff
The lab is staffed five days each week by Undergraduate Research Assistants in Digital Humanities. The students are available to provide support to faculty and graduate students using the lab for projects in support of research and presentation. They provide assistance in scanning, digital imaging, slide presentations, analog to digital transfer, audio and video recording and editing. The students also create tutorials, maintain the lab wiki, Verlaine, and check out equipment to Fellows and Workshop Coordinators.
Verlaine the Lab Wiki
The wiki is an easily editable multi-page document read and edited through a web browser. It is an ideal format for managing the necessary instructions and documentation for the significant hardware and software we have in HAL because it allows users to contribute. Individuals seeking help can write their own questions inline or in a comments page. Verlaine is available only within the Humanities Center. You can use it in the Lab, or from any other computer on our network.
Webcasting kit
We have two laptop computers with Quicktime Broadcaster installed that Individuals can check out. Combined with our mini-dv camera and our Quicktime Streaming Server, it provides a simple webcasting solution for use anywhere at the Center.
Text, Audio and Video Conferencing
HAL is equipped with the hardware and software for a number of multi-user conferencing solutions. The Access Grid takes advantage of Internet2 for the wide bandwidth needed for reliable multi-user video conferencing. The iChat client is another option that now supports up to four simultaneous conference participants. The Center hosts its own Jabber server to offer encrypted text messaging.
Streaming Media
The Center runs Quicktime services to stream both audio and video recordings. Due to the popularity of the iPod recording, we now have a drag-and-drop workflow that makes it easy for iPod users to publish content. The necessary compression is run by scripts on our server and the file is then moved to the streaming server automatically.
Portable Audio Recording
The lab has small, lightweight and easy-to-use recording devices for loan to Research Workshop Coordinators and Fellows. With an attached microphone, the iPod becomes a very adequate portable recording device. There is also a direct to mp3 portable stereo recording device. All the devices support external microphones.