JISC

The aim of the Intute/JISC Digitisations Dissemination Project was to disseminate knowledge of the digitisation projects that comprise the second phase of the JISC Digitisation Programme to the UK academic community, particularly academic researchers.

The project is now complete and the Final Report is available for reading.

The project

The second phase of the JISC Digitisation Programme involves sixteen individual digitisation projects, converting an enormous wealth of previously hard-to-access documents, images, sound and video recordings into digital form and placing them online for the benefit of both researchers and the interested public more generally. Most of these projects commenced during the first quarter of 2007 and are now close to completing their work. The sixteen digital collections will be made freely available online for the UK academic community during December 2008 and the first quarter of 2009

For the full benefits of this mass digitisation to be realised, it is vital that researchers are made aware of what is available to them and how it may be of use. There are many research themes that cut across the various project, but which the individual project teams are not in the best position to draw out or communicate. JISC have therefore asked Intute, with its strong background in digital resource discovery and its longstanding connections with UK academic research, to disseminate these outputs in a targeted, cost-effective manner.

Project Aims

The aim of this project is to generate awareness amongst the relevant sections of the UK academic research community of the new digitisation projects and what they can contribute to research.

• By the end of July, 2009, the project aims to have:
• Identified research themes that are common across several of the digitisation projects, which may be then be used to engage the interest of researchers in related fields
• Created re-useable online materials that contextualise and expands knowledge of the digital collections.
• Arranged and attended suitable events where the collections may be introduced and demonstrated to large numbers of researchers interested in the identified themes
• Utilised respected academic information channels, such as peer-reviewed journals, for disseminating information about the content and use of the new online collections
• Initiated scholarly discussion of the new collections and their impact on research and methodology

The process

This project will involve the use of several different dissemination channels to reach as many academic researchers as possible given the scope and budget. The various dissemination channels will be cross-linked by research theme to encourage further exploration of the outputs of the JISC digitisation projects.

The process for delivering the project will involve the following:

• A report on the outcomes of two half-day workshops on cross-project themes. This will gather feedback from academics that may be used to inform future JISC projects.
• Papers presented to a total of three academic conferences relating to cross-project themes.
• About five specialist ‘microsites’ based upon research themes addressed by the JISC digitisation projects. These will be hosted on the Intute website.
• Two or more reviews or papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, looking at the new digital collections from a scholarly perspective.
• Content for two or three booklets about resources (both JISC and non-JISC) relating to the identified cross-project themes.
• Blog-postings as appropriate about the JISC digitization projects
• Index of JISC-funded digitisation projects on the Intute website

The future

It is hoped that this project will lead to a greater awareness and use of JISC-funded digital collections by the academic research community. This will enable researchers to locate and access primary source materials that previously would have taken a great deal of time (and in many cases pre-existing knowledge of archive contents) to discover.

It is now generally acknowledged that online access to archives, and better tools for searching them, enables researchers to produce better, more informed research at a quicker pace than was previously possible.

The Final Report

The project plan

Download the project plan to find out more about the detail of the project.

Lead site: University of Oxford on behalf of the Intute Executive, University of Manchester