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Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2006-2009

Of war, cartoons, eggs, and more…

Cartoons are a very effective medium not only to comment on the social, political and historical events of our times but also for their power to stay in people’s hearts forever, thus recalling a particular event. One of the many contributors to the Great War Archive, part of the First World War Poetry Digital Archive, […]

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Data capture Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2003-2007 Scanners

Book scanners: compare and contrast

For those considering large scale book digitisation, and the purchase of a book scanner, this brief report will help consider the pros and cons of some of the main book scanners currently available on the market. Julian Ball, the author of the report, attended an event at the Munich Digitisation Centre (18-10 June 2008) where […]

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Audio-Visual Jisc digitisation programmes

Digitising Moral Panic – Video in the Classroom

Carol Green, from Craven College Skipton, was one of the first lecturers to use the NewsFilm Online resource in a classroom setting, selecting a suite of films from the archive that explore the idea of moral panic. In particular, she wanted to show her class of Journalism students that the idea of moral panic is […]

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Audio-Visual In the news Jisc digitisation programmes Users

Yesterdays’s Headlines …. Televised News Online

NewsFilm Online, launched last week, contains 60,000 digitised clips from the archives of ITN and other news sources. It’s an incredibly rich resource, featuring news stories relating to events such as the Suez crisis in 1956, Nelson Mandela’s first interview in 1961, the moon landing in 1969 and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales […]

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Funding In the news Jisc digitisation programmes Podcasts Projects 2006-2009

Issac Newton Podcasts and other new digitisation projects

JISC has just selected 25 diverse projects at UK universities that are going to receive £1.8m of funding in the ‘Enrich Digital Resources’ programme. The support has been allocated to projects designed to benefit both researchers and learners, to improve existing digital content and to digitise new materials for sustainable access in the future. The […]

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Audio-Visual bbc In the news Jisc digitisation programmes Publicity and promotion Users

Will a BBC video archive swamp everything else?

Various events earlier in the summer gave the BBC the chance to parade their plans to digitise their entire back archive of televisual material. (Although it’s interesting to note there is little info on this on the BBC site itself, particularly on its archive pages). The plans are not new. Back in 2006, there were […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Podcasts Projects 2006-2009 Usability Users

Early usage of the John Johnson Collection

The second release of the JISC-funded John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera, a collaboration between the Bodleian Library and ProQuest, is now available at http://johnjohnson.chadwyck.co.uk and http://johnjohnson.chadwyck.com. The project reported that “usage Statistics for the John Johnson Collection resource during the first two months since the launch (March 2008) have been extremely encouraging […]

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flickr flickr images images Jisc digitisation programmes london Projects 2006-2009 theatre

Using Flickr for digital resources

The East London Theatre Archive is creating an invaluable database of performing arts resources, from playbills and programmes to press cuttings and photographs. It will consist of around 15,000 digital objects, taken from East London theatres. As an extra part of their work, they have commissioned photography of some of the theatres themselves, such as […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Podcasts Projects 2006-2009 Users Web2.0

Communities and online collections

The Great War Archive web site, part of the JISC-funded First World War Poetry Digital Archive project, is a powerful example of how communities can be galvanised in the creation of a unique and poignant online resource for the benefit of the wider public. An article on the Times Higher Education Supplement “From no man’s […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2006-2009 Users Web2.0

Is academia ready for Web 2.0?

As part of its development, the Pre-Raphaelite Resource digitisation project recently commissioned an audience research study to consult users about whether the inclusion of Web 2.0 features on a resource of this type would be useful or important to the education community. The report indicated that: “there is some readiness among the education community for […]

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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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e-learning Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2006-2009 Users

“Did Bob’s Pills cure gout?”

If we make it, they might come… but it is a fact that any newly launched digital collection has to compete for attention with a huge amount of material already available on the web. Resource creators, therefore, have the challenging task of devising ways in which to interest and engage potential users. Projects within the […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2006-2009

The Murder of Jean Alexander (Kilmarnock, 1807)

One of the great things about digitising multiple collections is it allows you to build connections between different resources. Here’s a straightforward example The John Johnson Collection of Electronic Ephemera has a news-sheet (dated 14 Nov 1807) recounting the murder of two women in the town of Kilmarnock, on the west coast of Scotland. It […]

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Collaboration Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2006-2009

Public-private partnership delivers thousands of images for free

Thanks to a public-private partnership between the Bodleian Library and ProQuest, thousands of images from one of the world’s most important collections of printed ephemera are being made freely available to all UK universities, further education institutions, schools and public libraries. The John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera, part of the JISC Phase […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2003-2007 Projects 2006-2009

Open up as many channels as possible for resource discovery

There’s a lot of digital content out there, and so the battle to get your particular project noticed and used is a tough one. One particular project that has dealt with this is the Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets project, a multi-partner project led by the University of Southampton. The resource will not just have its own website […]

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Impact assessment Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2003-2007 Users

Usage and impact of digital resources

The JISC invites tenders to conduct a study on the usage and impact of a selection of online digital resources which were produced as part of the JISC Phase One Digitisation Programme, 2003-2007. The digital collections created as part of the programme are aimed at enhancing the provision of e-content for teaching, learning and research […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Libraries Projects 2003-2007

Freeing up library space

One of the unexpected benefits of mass digitisation is that it frees up library shelf space; being able to access primary materials and journals online means that librarians no longer need to dedicate precious space to often bulky or fragile objects. Recent JISC-funded digitisation, for example, has allowed many universities around the UK to either […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Podcasts Projects 2006-2009

Podcast: How digitisation can bring a nation’s heritage to the desktops of all

One of the projects in JISC’s digitisation programme, Welsh Journals Online, led by the National Library of Wales, will be adding to a growing body of online materials dedicated to Welsh culture, history and language. In this podcast, director of the project Arwel Jones talks about how digitisation can promote wider efforts to make a […]

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Jisc digitisation programmes Projects 2006-2009

Contribute your digital memories of WW1

As part of the JISC funded First World War Poetry Digital Archive project, the University of Oxford has launched a web site to allow members of the public to submit digital photographs or transcripts of items they personally hold which are related to the First World War. The ‘Great War Archive’ site will run for […]