Two months ago, ODH welcomed our new website administrator, Dave Barrington (david.barrington@byu.edu). Dave has done an excellent job continuing the work done by his predecessor, John Cheng, whom we all greatly miss. Hiring changes are bittersweet, but Dave has made the transition easy. As website administrator, Dave is responsible for …

When’s the last time that you opened a website and found yourself irritated? You probably had a hard time finding what you were looking for—or couldn’t find it at all. Even though it’s 2025, we still encounter frustrating websites. While some might be plain unusable, the majority of these bothersome …

Last weekend, many of us in the Office of Digital Humanities attended the 9th Digital Humanities Utah Symposium at Utah Tech University. Each year, DHU is an opportunity for digital humanities scholars across the state of Utah and beyond to share research and ideas, network, and learn about the application …

Video games are a relatively recent phenomenon, but they’re not that new: people have been playing Pong, Tetris, and Pac-Man for over 40 years. In our college, we study the human experience through languages, literature, philosophy, film, and more, but until now, video games haven’t been invited to the party. …

The Office of Digital Humanities provides four physical spaces in the JFSB that are available to students, faculty, and staff: the Humanities Learning Commons, the testing lab, the computer lab, and the Foreign Language Activities Commons (FLAC). We encourage the use of these spaces within the college. If you walk …

As you walk around campus, it’s hard to avoid construction. Unless you park in the basement of the JFSB and your office window doesn’t face west, it’s hard to miss the visual (and auditory) progress of the Eyring Science Center addition or the new arts building. When these projects are …

Within the College of Humanities, we are inspired to become acquainted with all good books, languages, tongues, and people (D&C 90:15-16). The influence of the College spreads much farther than the walls of the JFSB and farther than the minds of our Humanities students: the reach of the College spreads …

For those who use shared drives in the College of Humanities, did you know that there is another way to access your data?  It’s via Nextcloud.  With a browser, granted permissions, and using your NetID, you can login to https://humnextcloud.byu.edu from either on or off campus.  You will be taken …

I’m sure that many of you have noticed a dramatic increase in phishing emails in recent years. News stories of businesses having information exfiltrated or ransomware attacks are all too common. I have often heard the statement, “It isn’t if you’ll get hacked, but when.” So, is there nothing that …

With the end of the winter semester and the beginning of the spring term, I get a chance to look outside my office window, Bartleby-style, and observe the changes around me. Trees are now in full leaf. New students are walking by and trying to figure out whether they should …

DigHT 210: Introduction to Programming will return to the class schedule for Fall 2024. The class will now teach Python, the most popular programming language in the world. Unlike most introductory programming classes, DigHT 210 will be taught in a small computer lab with a focus on individual instruction. The …

Renovations have commenced on the Foreign Language Activities Commons (FLAC) in B003 JFSB.  The cabinetry in the back area has been removed to simplify the area and add more space.  The walls were repainted throughout the area (shout-out to Brad and Charles, the best in the business), and the tech …

If you’re interested in learning Hebrew, the Biblical Hebrew Learning Suite is the soon-to-be-released resource for you! In collaboration with Donald W. Parry, the WordCruncher team has been developing four excellent Hebrew learning tools: 1. The Biblical Hebrew Learning Tool Master 5 components to studying Hebrew–pronunciation, vocabulary, verb parsing, grammar, and …

It’s a trap! Many scholars want to have a webpage, website, or even a custom web application to showcase their work, provide open access to resources, or to collect data. In the digital world we live in, this is an excellent way to extend your reach and expand your impact. …

2023 is coming to an end, giving us a chance to celebrate and reflect on all that has happened this past year in the Office of Digital Humanities. Among the many notable events, here are a few to remember: University Conference awards: ODH brought home two major university awards this …

In September ODH welcomed it’s newest faculty member: Dr. Kathie Gossett. Kathie has worked at the intersections of digital media and the humanities for over 15 years—28 if you include her years working in industry.  Her particular focus is on user experience (UX), including user research, interface design, and information …

Only a few short months after adding Lauryn Wilde to the team (take a peek at her self-introduction here when you get a chance), ODH has expanded once more with the addition of its newest member: Spencer Young! Recently brought on as a full-time member of the WordCruncher team, Spencer …

One of the primary purposes of the Office of Digital Humanities is to assist faculty and students in the College of Humanities with digitally inflected research and pedagogical projects. Sometimes this assistance takes the form of a quick consultation; want to know the best way to scan a conference program …

You might be aware that Lauryn Wilde just joined the Office of Digital Humanities, but did you know these 3 facts about her? 1. Binary Linguist Lauryn has an uncanny ability to communicate fluently in binary code. She can hold lengthy conversations with computers using only ones and zeroes, making …

Some ideas and pointers to fine tune RingCentral. As we have transitioned to the new BYU phone system, offered through the softphone company RingCentral, I have heard some fun comments. My favorite was, “I didn’t need training to use my old phone!”. One of the benefits of RingCentral is that …

English Parallel Bible: In the 1990s, the WordCruncher team hired Biblical Hebrew and Greek students to create the English Parallel Bible. The basic version (see below) uses a transliteration of Hebrew and Greek words so English speakers can pronounce the words (e.g., ’ĕlōhîm). The advanced version uses Hebrew letters for …

In the College of Humanities we have many servers to fill  the various needs of faculty and staff.  Did you know that we have over 50 servers?  Many of you have requested server space for various reasons, including projects, books, and research. A few examples:  FLATS testing to receive college …

When I first joined the WordCruncher team, I was surprised to discover that many people were unaware that the software was still actively being developed. As part of my role, I set out to increase WordCruncher’s visibility both within the college and beyond; over the past four years, I’m proud …

The Humanities Learning Commons has recently been remodeled and redesigned from a set of carrels with desktop computers into a place where students may gather to study and collaborate in an open and relaxed environment. Patrons may take advantage of comfortable and flexible seating to create a study area, or …

Introduction: OpenAI, ChatGPT, Their Impact on Industry OpenAI is a research and development company founded in 2015 with the goal of promoting and developing friendly AI in a way that benefits humanity as a whole. Co-founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba, OpenAI started …

My work with The Office of Digital Humanities is as a senior web developer. My teams and I build applications in the Clojure programming language1 to serve the college of Humanities and the Office of Digital Humanities, and utility libraries that serve the university and the broader developer community. Here …

In her 2007 New Yorker piece “The Meaning of Life,” Jill Lepore tells the story of the classic American board game The Game of Life, whose first iteration was developed by the Massachusetts engraver Milton Bradley in 1860. Lepore argues that each subsequent version of the game can be read …

Over the last 40 years, students and scholars have used WordCruncher to search, study, and analyze various digital texts ranging from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Peanuts comics to baseball statistics. From time to time, we are asked by researchers if WordCruncher can perform a specific function or help …

Stepping Into The Trap Nearly 20 years ago I was a bright-eyed graduate student splitting time between Dr. Michael Bush’s ARCLITE Lab and Dr. Kirk Belnap’s National Middle East Language Resource Center. Among other responsibilities, I served as an advisor for those groups’ technology decisions, and those decisions were often …

We are currently planning to shut down Hummedia at the end of the summer, and there are a few simple steps required of you to have your collections ready on Y-video for Fall semester (or earlier, if you like).

Office of Digital Humanities has been providing exceptional service to faculty member in the College of Humanities. One of services is content management solution, which is especially essential for the college and faculty.

Last week, the Office of Digital Humanities hosted the sixth Digital Humanities Utah (DHU) symposium. DHU began in 2016 as an opportunity to gather people from universities around the state—and from the larger region—to discuss the work that they were doing on/in digital scholarship, digital scholarly communication, and more.

A few weeks ago, as I was packing up to move to a new office, I came across a looseleaf binder that I had put together nearly 25 years ago, a few years into my career at BYU.

Comic strips are not generally analyzed because of the difficulty of converting handwritten images into a digital version. Perhaps one of the most difficult comic strips to analyze is Peanuts, an American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz from 1950 to 2000.