Manifesto: A Life on the Hyphen: Balancing Identities as Librarians, Scholars, and Digital Practitioners

The work of digital humanists and librarians is often invisible to the larger communities in which they work, particularly in academia. This opinion essay by three librarian-scholar-digital practitioners explores invisible work and life on the hyphen — between the academy and the library and between the human and the digital. In this essay, we illustrate how librarian-scholar-digital practitioners can feel overworked and underappreciated, working in and with multiple fields and communities who have different and sometimes competing methodologies. Through two examples, we look at how living on the hyphen takes its toll for librarian-scholar-digital practitioners. We end our essay by detailing steps faculty and administration can take to help us solve the problem and realize the promise of digital humanities.