From: Alastair Dunning <[log in to unmask]>
The UK's JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee, supporting the use
of ICT in Higher and Further Education) has recently released a new
report, Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship, looking at the value
and impact of digitised resources. Written by Simon Tanner of King’s
College London, it considers four broad areas in which the creation of
digitised resources have has a significant impact.
http://bit.ly/9NjGw6 (pdf file)
The four themes are
*Inspiring Research*
Digitised resources not only improves access but enable new types of
research to be asked, such as the Data Mining with Criminal Intent
project that is based on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 -
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
*Bestowing Economic Benefits*
The digitisation of journals, such as the Wellcome Trust Medical Journal
Backfiles project, provides free and immediate access for scientists.
One digitised journal, the Biochemical Journal, receives over 300,000
uses a month -
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/medicaljournals.aspx
*Connecting People and Communities*
Resources such as Great War Archive, gathering digitised memorabilia
from World War One, not only provide new material for scholars, but
enable new communities and expertise to be developed outside the campus
walls - http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/
*Digital Britain*
Digitising some of Britain’s special collections not only provides new
data for educators and learners around the world, but also for a greater
appreciation of the nation’s ‘prize jewels’; examples include the Freeze
Frame collection of polar photographs, or the Old Weather resource for
measuring and transcribing weather reports in Naval logbooks -
http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk <http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/>,
http://www.oldweather.org/
More JISC-supported content is available via http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/
Alastair
Alastair Dunning
JISC Digitisation Programme Manager
t: 0203 006 6065
What content has JISC funded? - See http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/
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