Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship
An early JISC project from 1996 stated that “Digitisation is a key mechanism by which libraries with important research collections can fulfil their responsibilities by providing improved access to users in other UK higher education institutions and internationally”
Following on from this pioneering work, JISC has made a committed investment in the digitisation of journals, newspapers, music, historical records, moving images and other scholarly materials – and a full browseable list has now been made available by JISC.
But since that early journals project in 1996, the impact of digitised resources has swollen far beyond simply improving access.
A new report, Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship, (link to pdf file) has just been released. Written by Simon Tanner of King’s College London, it looks at four broad areas in which the creation of digital resources has has significant impact.
Digitised resources not only improves access but enable new types of research to be asked, such as the Data Mining with Criminal Intent project that is based on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
The digitisation of journals, such as the Wellcome Trust Medical Journal Backfiles project, provides free and immediate access for scientists. One digitised journal, the Biochemical Journal, receives over 300,000 uses a month.
Resources such as Great War Archive, gathering digitised memorabilia from World War One, not only provide new material for scholars, but enable new communities and expertise to be developed outside the campus walls.
Digitising some of Britain’s special collections not only provides new data for educators and learners around the world, but also for a greater appreciation of the nation’s ‘prize jewels’; examples include the Freeze Frame collection of polar photographs, or the Old Weather resource for measuring and transcribing weather reports in Naval logbooks.
Join the Navy! And solve climate change!
One of the projects funded under JISC’s Developing Community Content programme is now up and runnning. From the press release:
The public are being asked to revisit the voyages of World War One Royal Navy warships to help scientists working on a JISC project understand the climate of the past and unearth new historical information.
Visitors to OldWeather.org, which launches today, will be able to retrace the routes taken by any of 280 Royal Navy ships including historic vessels such as HMS Caroline, the last survivor of the 1916 Battle of Jutland still afloat.
The naval logbooks contain a treasure trove of information but because the entries are handwritten they are incredibly difficult for a computer to read. By getting an army of online human volunteers to retrace these voyages and transcribe the information recorded by British sailors we can relive both the climate of the past and key moments in naval history.
Rapid Digitisation Call published
JISC invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to be funded as part of its e-content programme for 2011. Funding of up to £400,000 is available for rapid digitisation. It is anticipated that 5-7 projects will be funded and the maximum funding available for any one project is £100,000.
Within the call, JISC will be funding a mixture of the following types of projects:
a. Addition of new digitised content to existing digital resources; the value and potential impact of adding any new content should be demonstrated.
b. Digitisation of small collections; as with above, the value, and the relationship to existing digital collections, should be articulated.
c. Pilot digitisation work to test the viability and value of digitising a larger collection.
d. Undertaking digitisation with new technologies (e.g. 3D scanning).
The deadline for receipt of proposals in response to this call is 12:00 noon UK time on Friday 10 December 2010. Projects should start by 1 March 2011 and may run for up to 5 months. All projects must be complete by 31 July 2011.
JISC is hosting an event to give delegates more information about the call (and also the related JISC grant call on enriching via collaboration and developing community content), and also give the opportunity for networking to take place. More information on the event, which takes place in London on 28 October 2010 is available on this blog.
The call itself is available on the JISC website