Anthology of Computers and the Humanities · Volume 5

From Manuscript to Megabyte: Building Sustainable and Open Futures in the Digital Humanities

James B. Harr III1 , Emma Stanley2 , Jenna Rinalducci3 and Donna Kain4

  • 1 Department of Data Science, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA
  • 2 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
  • 3 University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
  • 4 East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
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Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.63744/XQGnb3aSKb2D

Published: 21 July 2026

Keywords: digital humanities, sustainability, digital preservation, cultural heritage, libraries

Abstract

We present and introduce the proceedings from the 2026 Digital Humanities Institute on NC State’s Centennial Campus. The gathering’s theme, From Manuscript to Megabyte: Building Sustainable and Open Futures in the Digital Humanities, asked scholars, librarians, archivists, and practitioners from across North Carolina and beyond to consider a question that has grown only more urgent as public investment in higher education and the humanities continues to contract: how do we build systems of knowledge—technical, legal, institutional, and communal—that are not only innovative but durable, accessible, and just? We describe the content of the included papers and end with reflections on what happens when we move from manuscript to megabyte: who is included in the process, what is deliberately preserved and what is allowed to end, and whose knowledge counts as evidence in the first place.