I had this thought as a History student twenty years ago, though I was already interested in programming. I wrote up several proposals for my entrepreneurship class on using computing to automate many of the more difficult and time-consuming tasks when faced with huge amounts of data. At the time, all the information was only available in printed format or microfiche. We still used card catalogs (paper index cards in long thin boxes) to find find books and huge sets of books to find articles (for those too young to know the pre-interweb days).
The issues faced at the time where cost (there were perhaps two or three scanners on campus, that I knew about, and we were a leading computer science school) and revenue generation. I am quite glad these are now long over-due being addressed, but I do worry history students now aren't learning the solid research skills we developed and acquired twenty years ago, with basic research being so much easier now. Though the volume of research being able to be conducted in a much shorter timeframe is very favourable.
The issues faced at the time where cost (there were perhaps two or three scanners on campus, that I knew about, and we were a leading computer science school) and revenue generation. I am quite glad these are now long over-due being addressed, but I do worry history students now aren't learning the solid research skills we developed and acquired twenty years ago, with basic research being so much easier now. Though the volume of research being able to be conducted in a much shorter timeframe is very favourable.