Launch of the Virtual Manuscript Room
This month sees the launch of the first phase of the Virtual Manuscript Room(VMR), as part of the Mingana Day at the University of Birmingham on 8 July.
The presentation of the collection online is a crucial part of JISC’s £1.8 million Enriching Digital Resources programme, a set of 25 projects which enhances the use of online content for teaching, learning and research
In this first launch, the VMR project making available over 10000 images from 70 Eastern manuscripts from the university’s Mingana collection, including a full set of images of one of the oldest copies of the Qur’an in existence.
A full program for the day (including lunch!) is available from the VMR launch website. All are welcome! if you would like to come to this day, please email Frouke Schrijver at FXS821@adf.bham.ac.uk
Requirements for digitised resources in Islamic Studies
Following the designation of Islamic Studies as a strategically important subject by the UK Government in June 2007, JISC commissioned a review of user requirements for digitised resources for researchers and teachers within higher education working in the field of Islamic Studies.
The University of Exeter carried out the study and in their final report made a range of recommendations:
• The creation of a authoritative gateway to Islamic Resources
• Develop digitised catalogues of Islamic manuscripts and related research material such as recent theses;
• The commissioning of a feasibility study into the creation of a corpus of interactive online education materials, which could also be hosted by the national gateway
• Continuation, and increase, of the subsidies for major online reference works in Islamic Studies.
• The archiving of the websites of UK Islamic organisations
• Subsidising the acquisition of an online collection of research monographs in Islamic Studies, should such a collection be developed by a commercial organisation.
Read the full report on User Requirements for Digitised Resources in Islamic Studies (Word) or (PDF).