My first contribution to the Day of Digital Humanities was not really what I expected.

On this Day of Digital Humanities, I ditched a database lesson in my morning writing course, and instead read a hand-written letter about a stack of books.

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague handed me a letter sent from the Fayette State Correctional Institute in LaBelle, Pennsylvania. It was a hand-wrtten request from an inmate, sent to the Seton Hill College English Department, asking for journalism textbooks.

I told my students that I wasn’t asking them to donate books — I have a shelf full of sample textbooks and slightly out-of-date but perfectly good editions, and a dictionary I haven’t even picked up in about eight years.

“But what did he do?” my students asked. “You’re helping him, without even knowing what he did?”

via Day of Dennis Jerz » Today, a Hand-written Letter about a Stack of Books Trumped a Database Lesson.