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; Elizabeth Grumbach
The Association for Computers and the Humanities 2026 Conference (virtual), 2026, conference presentation
Pamella Lach; Meredith Graham; Gina Brandolino; Konstantine Vlasis; Marisol Fila; Grace East
DH 2024, 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; 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; Claudia Berger; Gabriella Evergreen; Quinn Dombrowski; Kayleigh Perkov
The Association for Computers and the Humanities 2024 Conference (virtual), 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
ACRL Digital Humanities Discussion Group Online Symposium, 2021, conference paper
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
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
CNI Digital Scholarship Planning 2020 Webinar Series, 2020, conference paper
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

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