JISC

Evaluation of the JISC Digitisation Programme Phase 1 and International Contextualisation (April 2007) is a key output of JISC Formative Evaluation and Support Study led by Evidence Base at the University of Central England in collaboration with Simon Tanner from Kings Digital Consultancy Services at Kings College.

Background

This report outlines the achievements of the first phase of projects funded through the JISC Digitisation Programme and outlines lessons learned from these projects which will be of value to future digitisation projects. The report illustrates the value of the JISC Digitisation Programme by placing the work of the programme into a wider international context and goes on to provide an overview of comparative activity in a selection of countries.

The information presented in this report is based on the activities of the Formative Evaluation study led by Evidence Base at the University of Central England in collaboration with Simon Tanner from Kings Digital Consultancy Services at Kings College. The information was gathered through a mixture of desk research and interviews with project staff and project advisory board members.

The first round of the JISC Digitisation Programme is funded through a £10 million investment by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), through the Comprehensive Spending Review 2 and is being managed by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Additional funding of £12 million has been made available for 16 further digitisation projects during the period 2007–2008. This programme will create new e-resources for learning, teaching and research. Six projects were funded through the first round of funding:

• 18th-Century Parliamentary Papers from the British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service 
  This will deliver up to 945,000 pages from all surviving printed House of Commons and House of Lords Papers, Bills, Journals and Reports for the period.
• Archival Sound Recordings at the British Library
  This will deliver up to 12,000 segmented encodings totalling 3,900 hours of sound recordings from distinct and unique collections.
• 19th-Century British Newspapers at the British Library 
  This will deliver up to 2 million pages, totalling approximately 10 billion words of British newspapers from 1800–1900.
• Medical Journals Backfiles 
  This will deliver up to 1.7 million pages of complete backfiles from important and historically significant British and American medical journals through PubMed Central.
• Newsfilm Online 
  This will deliver up to 60,000 segmented encodings, totalling 3,000 hours, and associated materials from the archives of ITN and Reuters Television.
• Online Historical Population Reports at Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) History
  This will deliver up to 200,000 pages of all the published reports created by the Registrar-General’s Office(s) and its predecessors for 1801–1920, Census Reports 1801–1933, and ancillary reports from The National Archives.