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Great-a really useful initiative. Well-done!
Wow! An excellent idea, and first ‘broadcast’ – well done. More or this please.
Thank you for this – I’ll pass the idea on for consideration as a blog topic.
Interesting commentary, highlights a number of useful services for students and like the fact this resource includes students speaking about their personal experiences and opinions
Hi Nicola,
I don’t really want to pre-empt what JISC might think about this area. But I mention it because I think it is a really important area – how researchers, academics, students, etc keep up-to-date with various kinds of information, and what JISC considers to be it’s strategy for current awareness. It seems to me that current awareness has been rather neglected by JISC in terms of long/medium term development.
Scholarly publishing is a $5 billion/year industry, and the latest articles are the ‘cream’ on this publishing ‘cake’.
But there’s also many other types of current awareness, of course.
Hi Louisa,
No question that these are ‘uncertain’ (or ‘interesting’ as the Chinese proverb has it!) times and that this is likely to result in a higher than normal amount of ‘organisational flux’ within the sector: whether that be as institutions assess whether their existing strategies and processes are still fit for purpose and offering maximum ‘bang for their buck’ or, even more seismically, merge, de-merge or (God forbid) disappear altogether.
Thankfully though, institutions need not just be at the mercy of events and the tools and guidance are out there to help them assess what the future might hold and to make appropriate preparations for it. We at JISC infoNet have certaily seen an increase in interest in our Scenario Planning http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/scenario-planning resource in recent months as people look for tools to help them anticipate future challenges. We are also beginning to work closely with institutions such as Beaumont College as they look to review and refine their strategic processes. There’s more on this from our own Spotlight Blog http://jiscinfonet.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2010/08/19/demonstrating-the-value-of-jisc-infonet%e2%80%99s-resources-with-beaumont-college/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jiscinfonet%2Fspotlight+%28Spotlight%29
It may be a rough ride ahead, but at least through the work of JISC and JISC Advance the sector has many of the tools it needs to steer a successful course through it.
Excellent post Louisa. Especially given the Browne report, JISC needs to be able to express simply and clearly what we are about and why what we do is worthwhile to a sector struggling with any number of pressures and issues.
Thanks for your comment Roddy. Would you mind expanding on your suggestion? We’re keen to capture all feedback and would welcome your comments.
I hope they will include a discussion of the important area of current awareness for scholars.
Hi Robert,
Just wanted to give you a heads up on some JISC work that’s been carried out in this area.
The JISC Preservation of Web Resources Project (http://jiscpowr.jiscinvolve.org/wp/) looked at blog preservation in more detail. There is further information in the Handbook (http://jiscpowr.jiscinvolve.org/wp/handbook/) and on the blog itself (http://jiscpowr.jiscinvolve.org/wp/?s=blog) including the inital ideas that led into the Archive Project you mention.
We’ve also done some work archiving blogs on the JISC Beginner’s Guide to Digital Preservation project including an iPres paper on archiving blogs (http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-bgdp/2010/09/13/ipres-2010-archiving-professional-blogs/) and a case study on archiving a blog (http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-bgdp/2010/10/11/case-study-archiving-the-jisc-powr-blog/).
Good luck with the blog and may you preserve it well!
Marieke Guy
Research Officer
UKOLN
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
It’s part of a much bigger project looking at the use of Collaborative Online Tools by Universities/Colleges to engage with external organisations and individuals more effectively. This is one of 8 institutional trial projects.
It’s part of the JISC Business and Community Engagement Programme, guidance will be published on the JISC infoNet website however for now you can find out more on the project blog.
Hello, is there a link to this JISC project?