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Impact assessment Searching Usability

The Long Tail of Usability

The Stormont Papers resources makes available the debates from the parliament of Northern Ireland (Stormont) from creation in 1921 until the end of Home Rule in 1971. It’s been available since 2006 and some statistics from the website are available. Of most interest is graph showing the spread of search terms entered by users There […]

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Evaluation Impact assessment

Measuring the impact of digitised resources

Measuring the use and impact of digitised resources is no easy exercise. This is not only because of the changing nature of information seeking behaviour of different audiences, which has an effect on how users engage with digital resources. It is also due to the challenge in establishing appropriate metrics and criteria for measuring the […]

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Funding Jisc digitisation programmes

Extra Funding – Enriching Digital Resources

The JISC is making up to £2m funding available for digitisation-related work under the following three headings. More information is available from the circular (Word document) 1. Pilot and small-scale digitisation. Proposals may focus on undertaking pilot digitisation, small-scale digitisation or a smaller feasibility study prior to larger scale activity. Alternatively, proposals may focus on […]

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Funding Jisc digitisation programmes Users

Prioritising Digitisation

One of the most difficult aspects of developing a digitisation strategy is deciding how you will prioritise your digitisation work Fragile manuscripts, fading newspapers, valuable coins, hidden audio recordings, historical texts and the like all clamour for the right to be digitised first. The JISC Digitisation Programme recognises this is a difficulty and therefore issued […]

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Publicity and promotion Users

Promoting online special collections

A recent blog post on Digitization 101 pointed to the article Online Digital Special Collections in English Universities: Promoting Awareness. This article is a useful read for those involved in the creation of digital collections and responsible for their take-up once material is available online. The author proposes a number of practical tips on activities […]

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Metadata Standards

Digital Standards: Going beyond Stalin

Standards for digital content such as file formats or metadata aren’t sexy. But they are crucial – without them resource discovery is impeded, functionality is diminished and long-term access is imperilled. But implementing standards is not just a matter of a ‘Stalinist’ top-down mandate. Within in a project, service or an organisation standards impinge on […]