Information Visualization: Challenge for the Humanities

Digital archiving creates a vast store of knowledge that can be accessed only through digital tools. Users of this information will need fluency in the tools of digital access, exploration, visualization, analysis, and collaboration. This paper proposes that this fluency represents a new form of literacy, which must become fundamental for humanities scholars. Tools influence both the creation and the analysis of information. Whether using pen and paper, Microsoft Office, or Web 2.0, scholars base their process, production, and questions on the capabilities their tools offer them. Digital archiving and the interconnectivity of the Web provide new challenges in terms of quantity and quality of information.