In February 2008, Exeter University Library was awarded £34,900 by the
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of behalf of HEFCE (Higher
Education Funding Council for England), to carry out a survey into User
Requirements for Digitised Resources in Islamic Studies.
A team led by Paul Auchterlonie and Ahmed Abu Zayed worked on the project
(named DigiIslam) between March and May, using a mixture of
questionnaires, focus groups, telephone interviews and bibliometric
analysis. The resulting report has now been sent to JISC.
JISC will study this report and will pass on any recommendations to HEFCE,
who will be announcing their wider strategy for Islamic Studies in Higher
Education later this summer.
The report is available at the DigiIslam Project website at :
http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/digiIslam/documents/DigiIslamReport.pdf
It is a substantial document, but the Executive Summary and
Recommendations can be found on pages 5-11.
For details of all the other reports which have been commissioned by HEFCE
since June 2007, when Islamic Studies was designated a Strategic Subject
by the UK Government, go to the HEFCE website (subsection Islamic Studies)
at :
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/aboutus/sis/islamic/
Paul Auchterlonie
Paul Auchterlonie,
Librarian for Middle East Studies,
University of Exeter, Old Library,
Prince of Wales Rd.,
Exeter EX4 4SB,
U.K.
Tel.: 01392 264051; Fax: 01392 263871
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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