This is the second of a series of posts on the Jisc-Wiley history of science digital archive by our colleague Dr. Hannah Woodward-Reed. It is notable that this resource is free to Jisc members in the UK. Ahead of this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are exploring the archive of […]
This is the first of a series of posts on the Jisc-Wiley history of science digital archive by our colleague Simon Bell of Wiley. It is notable that this resource is free to Jisc members in the UK. Wiley Digital Archives Goes Radioactive As part of the development of the major Jisc-Wiley history of science […]
The group purchasing scheme to date As we launch the 2021/2022 digital archival collections group purchasing scheme, let’s take a moment to reflect on the scheme so far. Over 1/3rd of our higher education members have collectively saved over £0.8 million on the acquisition of products offered through the group purchasing scheme. Additionally, of these, […]
Further to my earlier post about the special Programming Historian series we have developed in partnership with the National Archives, I thought you might be interested in the author briefing event. It will take place on 23 September. Please register via this Eventbrite page. During the call, the Programming Historian team will explore the invitation […]
Researchers often tell us that they have problems when they want to use digital methods to interrogate large archives, special collections, masses of catalogue records or aggregations of metadata. We are therefore pleased to announce a new partnership between Jisc, the Programming Historian and The National Archives (TNA) to publish a series of articles to […]
Jisc would like to invite publishers of digital archives and primary source material to respond to a “Request for Information” for a potential new initiative, the Digital Archival Collections (DAC) publishers’ collaboration programme, through our E-tendering portal. [This initiative is separate from the current Jisc Digital archival collections group purchasing scheme.] This is an information […]
On the same day that Paola Marchionni and I speak at this year’s UKSG conference on the subject of digital archival collections (‘DACs’), we are pleased to make available a new report summarising the series of roundtable talks, described in a previous post on this blog, in which representatives of libraries and publishers came together […]
Across the end of 2020 and early 2021 Jisc organised a series of roundtable conversations between members or our Digital Archival Collections (DAC) Advisory Group and invited representatives of publishers with experience of developing and delivering such collections. These discussions were sparked by ongoing feedback from our members, regarding concerns about DACs, provided to us […]
Today, we are pleased to announce that Jisc is embarking on a project, in partnership with the JSTOR content platform and its parent organisation ITHAKA, to facilitate the hosting and delivery of digitised content from Jisc members, with the goal of extending their reach, impact and reputation. At a time when the necessity of travel […]
Jisc’s Digital Archival Collections (DAC) advisory group met again recently. We discussed some interviews we have undertaken with acquisition librarians. The group thinks that DACs need to be taken as seriously as books and journals in library planning because they are increasingly purchased from budgeted allocations, not from under-spend. Purchasing them, therefore, is dependent on […]
Some members of the HE content team have been discussing issues about the collaborative digitisation of collections. We know, from conversations with our Digital Archival Collections advisory group, that there is a thirst for institutions to work together to make their collections available. We were wondering about the barriers to making this happen. Institutions are […]
At a digital archival collections advisory (DAC) group meeting earlier this month, we discussed the increasing need for higher education libraries to purchase DACs which are more relevant to teaching, especially as most teaching has now moved online. Academics on some arts and humanities courses are increasingly using primary source archives to teach, often with […]
This post is part of an ongoing series about digital archival collections (DACs) and launches our new guide: purchasing digital archives; guidelines for librarians when negotiating with publishers, which provides guidance on the purchasing of these collections for librarians needing to negotiate licences with publishers. Previously our research has shown that these collections provide valuable […]
At such a time of public concern, it can be interesting to examine how our ancestors viewed and dealt with epidemic diseases. I was looking at the UK Medical Heritage Library (UKMHL) which we provide as an open collection via our Historical Texts service and came across: Annals of influenza, or epidemic catarrhal fever in […]
The digital archival collections group purchasing scheme has saved Jisc members in higher education over £600,000 since the scheme piloted in 2017. To continue to meet the needs and requirements of our members, we recently ran a survey to measure satisfaction with the scheme and any suggestions for improvement. Across those who have purchased content, […]
As research has shown, digital archival collections provide valuable research opportunities in learning, teaching and research. With UK higher education library budgets squeezed, and competition to buy weighted towards books and journals, digital archival collections benefit from a simplified and more cost-efficient acquisition workflow. How do we take away the need for UK higher education […]
We are very pleased to announce that the digital archival collections British Periodicals Collection I and British Periodicals Collection II have now been added to Jisc’s Journal Archives service and are available to authorised researchers with immediate effect. These collections, jointly known within the service simply as ‘British Periodicals’ were purchased from ProQuest by Jisc […]
Here is a recording of a recent webinar (Zoom meeting) about the report and our next steps. Pamphlets have long been a popular way of getting people involved in campaigns. We have been working with teams at the London School of Economics and at UCL to digitise some pamphlets from their collections as part of […]
“The problems of the world are not going to be engaged with and solved in Faversham, they’re going to be sorted out in cities like Birmingham.” -Jim Crace “I grew up in Birmingham, where they made useful things and made them well.” -Lee Child There is, prominent in the history and psychogeography of Birmingham – […]
DCDC (Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities) has always been my go-to conference when it comes to digital resources. Each year, the topics are engaging and thought-provoking, providing a forum to connect with colleagues working on opening up access to collections across the UK and beyond. It also perfectly suits my work in providing advice on resource […]