Promises and challenges of digital libraries and document image analysis: a humanist´s perspective

Current developments in document image analysis promise to expand dramatically the size and potential usefulness of digital libraries for many disciplines, and indeed to change fundamental aspects of the way the disciplines are defined and practiced. This article offers a tour of selected humanities uses of document images to date, a glimpse of the fundamental transformations in professional practices looming on the horizon for humanists and, along the way, a sidelong glance at humanists´ persistent ambivalence as they hesitate at the threshold of the virtual library.