SDSU University Library
Pamella Lach

Pamella Lach (she/her/hers)

Digital Humanities Librarian and DH Center Director

ORCID iD
Academic Rank: Librarian; Tenured
(619) 594-8241
plach@sdsu.edu

Office: Library Addition 61N
University Library,
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive,
San Diego, CA 92182-8050

Biography

Pamella R. Lach (she/her/hers) is the Digital Humanities Librarian at San Diego State University, which occupies the traditional lands of the Kumeyaay. She is Director of the Library’s Digital Humanities Center (https://library.sdsu.edu/dh), a values-oriented space designed to blur and disrupt disciplinary boundaries; connect faculty, staff, students and community members; and foster digital experimentation and critique. She is co-director of SDSU’s Digital Humanities Initiative (https://dh.sdsu.edu/), an interdisciplinary and cross-campus hub of innovation. Dr. Lach’s work is grounded in an ethics of care and community building, critical and ethical applications of technology in research and teaching, and process-oriented experimentation. She is the co-creator with the National Humanities Center of the acclaimed series of podcast institutes that have helped more than 630 doctoral students, faculty, and academic staff move towards a more collaborative, care-centered, networked approach to the humanities. Her areas of interest include digital pedagogy, surveillance, critical librarianship, and anti-racist digital humanities. She has a PhD in U.S. Cultural History with an emphasis on gender and film history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a MS in Information Science from UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. Select professional service: * 2026-2028: Co-President, Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) * Fall 2024-present: Editorial Board, In the Library with the Lead Pipe, open access, open peer-reviewed journal * 2024-2026: Co-Vice President/Co-President Elect, Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) * 2022-2025: Executive Council member, Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) * 2023-2024: Conference Co-Chair, ACH 2024 Virtual Conference * 2022-2023: Conference Chair, ACH 2023 Virtual Conference (June 29-July 1) * 2022-2023: Chair, Digital Scholarship Section (DSS), Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) * 2021-2022: Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, DSS * 2019-2021: Chair, DSS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee * 2019-present: Review Editor, dh+lib Review * 2018-2020: Co-editor, Scholarly Communications column, College & Research Libraries News (a ReSEC activity) * 2017-2019: Co-Convener, DSS Digital Scholarship Centers Discussion Group/ACRL Digital Scholarship Centers Interest Group * 2016-2020: Member, ACRL Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC)

Professional History
  • Digital Humanities Librarian and DH Center Director, 2016—Present
    Library, San Diego State University
  • Head of the Center for Faculty and Staff Initiatives and Engagement, 2015—2016
    KU Libraries, University of Kansas
  • Associate Director/Manager, 2011—2015
    Digital Innovation Lab, University of North Carolina
Education
  • MSIS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010—2012
  • PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002—2007
  • MA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000—2002
  • Bachelor of Arts, Rutgers University, Douglass College, 1994—1998

Scholarship

Academic Publications

Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists, Revised Second Edition, 2024, book chapter
Pamella Lach; Jessica Pressman
People, Practice, Power: Digital Humanities Outside the Center, 2021, book chapter
Approaches to Liaison Librarianship: Innovations in Organization and Engagement, 2021, book chapter
Elizabeth A. Pollard; Pamella Lach
A Digital Project Handbook, 2020, journal article

Pamella Lach; Elizabeth A. Pollard
New Review of Academic Librarianship, 2019, journal article
Pamella Lach; Brian Rosenblum
Advances in Library Administration and Organization Volume 38: Project Management in the Library, 2018, book chapter
Pamella Lach; Brian Rosenblum; Élika Ortega; Stephanie Gamble
Digital Humanities In the Library / Of the Library: A dh+lib Special Issue, 2016, journal article

Academic Conferences

Pamella Lach; Meredith C. Graham; Grace East; Nuala Caomhanach; Lauren Burrell Cox; June Ke; Cassie Tanks; Priscilla Martinez
The Association for Computers and the Humanities 2024 Conference (virtual), 2024, conference paper
Pamella Lach; Anne Cong-Huyen; Crystal Luo; Kate Ozment; Caitlin Pollock; Amanda Visconti; Brandon Walsh
The Association for Computers and the Humanities 2024 Conference (virtual), 2024, conference paper
Pamella Lach; Claudia Berger; Gabriella Evergreen; Quinn Dombrowski; Kayleigh Perkov
The Association for Computers and the Humanities 2024 Conference (virtual), 2024, conference paper
Pamella Lach; Meredith Graham; Gina Brandolino; Konstantine Vlasis; Marisol Fila; Grace East
DH 2024, 2024, conference paper
Pamella Lach; John Russell; Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara; Rachel Starry; Linsey Ford; Claudia Berger
The Association for Computers and the Humanities 2023 Conference (virtual), 2023, conference presentation

Collaborating to Build a Digital Timeline of Social Justice in Comics at SDSU
Pamella Lach; Elizabeth A. Pollard; Pamela Jackson
Presentation at the Digital Pedagogy Institute (virtual), 2021, conference presentation
Pamella Lach; Heather Froehlich; Nabil Kashyap; Cara Marta Messina; R.C. Miessler; Brandon Walsh
Association for Computers and the Humanities 2021 Virtual Conference, 2021, conference presentation
ACRL Digital Humanities Discussion Group Online Symposium, 2021, conference paper
CNI Digital Scholarship Planning 2020 Webinar Series, 2020, conference paper
Pamella Lach; Elizabeth A. Pollard
Lilly Conference: Teaching for Active and Engaged Learning, 2020, conference presentation
Pamella Lach; Megan Martinsen; Amanda Visconti; Brandon Walsh; Heather Froehlich; R.C. Miessler; Nabil Kashyap
Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) DH2020 (canceled due to COVID), 2020, conference abstract
Annie Chen; Samantha T. Kaplan; Pamella Lach; Lu Xiao
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2017, conference proceedings

Review and Editing

Claudia Berger; Pamella Lach; John Russell; Nancy Smith
dh+lib, 2025, journal issue
Claudia Berger; Pamella Lach; John Russell; Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara
dh+lib, 2024, journal issue

Dissemination

The Stories We Still Need: Podcasting for Urgent Times
Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, Arizona State University, 2025, public speech
Scholars Lab, University of Virginia, 2025, public speech