Hi all,
I hope this news is of interest: at its AGM in York today, JISC
Collections is formally launching JISC eCollections, a new community-
owned content service. It comprises 3 platforms, one each for journal
archives, historic books and multimedia resources. The platforms bring
together (and increase visibility of) a range of resources previously
licensed by JISC eCollections; member libraries can pay a single
access fee to access the entire service (all three platforms) rather
than having to access this content across multiple providers' platforms.
As a community-governed service with advisory boards for each
platform, the idea is that JISC eCollections will be a service managed
for the community, by the community, to protect JISC and JISC
Collections' investments in content.
The full text of today's press release is below. Please do let me or
Scott Gibbens ([log in to unmask]) know if you have any
questions.
All the best,
Charlie.
_____________________
Charlie Rapple
TBI Communications
01865 875896
_____________________
Announcing JISC eCollections
A new community-owned content service for UK HE and FE institutions
24 November 2011. JISC Collections, the membership organisation that
supports the provision of digital content for education and research
in the UK, is formally launching a new service to consolidate and host
a broad range of content including journal archives, historic books
and multimedia items. The JISC eCollections service has been funded by
JISC, to protect and preserve content investments made by JISC
Collections on behalf of UK higher and further education institutions.
The service comprises three platforms, developed in partnership with
EDINA (JISC MediaHub) and Mimas (JISC Journal Archives and JISC
Historic Books). Together they are intended to provide a sustainable,
value for money alternative to accessing licensed content on publisher
platforms.
Each platform contains a number of resources to which JISC Collections
has previously negotiated long-term licences, along with some content
that has never before been available online:
• JISC Historic Books comprises full text or page images of
over 350,000 books published in Britain from 1475 to 1900, including
more than 65,000 historical editions from the British Library’s
collection
• JISC Journal Archives consolidates archives of over 600
journals, from publishers including Oxford University Press and Brill
• JISC MediaHub enables users to discover over 500,000
multimedia items - moving images, still images and audio – both in
JISC-licensed collections, such as those from the Digital Images for
Education, NewsFilm Online and Film & Sound Online resources, and in
third-party collections, such as ARKive and The First World War Poetry
Archive.
JISC Collections members were previously required to access this
content via a range of separate services, each with different user
interfaces and administrative requirements. Consolidating each group
of resources into one platform simplifies training and supports better
discovery, enabling maximum value to be derived from the initial
content investments. Administrative features include COUNTER
statistics and inbound OpenURL linking for text content, and support
for authentication via the UK Access Management Federation.
Institutions will pay a single service fee to support the cost of
hosting and maintaining the platforms. Each platform will have an
advisory board, comprising lecturers, information specialists, media
advisors and technical experts from UK HE and FE, to ensure the
service is managed by the community, for the community. “I am
delighted to see JISC Collections’ commitment to provide continuing
access to these important community resources via one service,” says
Graham Stone, Information Resources Manager at the University of
Huddersfield, and Chair of the JISC Journal Archives advisory board.
“The JISC eCollections platforms are easy to use, and rationalising
multiple resources into three consistent interfaces – integrated with
our knowledge bases – helps us achieve our goal of providing users
with a simple, seamless research experience.”
--ENDS--
For more information, contact:
Charlie Rapple, TBI Communications
[log in to unmask]
+44 1865 875896
About JISC eCollections
http://www.jiscecollections.ac.uk
JISC eCollections consolidates and hosts more than £15m of journals,
books and multimedia archives on behalf of UK education institutions.
The service comprises three separate platforms, each of which contains
a number of resources, such as Early English Books Online (part of
JISC Historic Books, www.jischistoricbooks.ac.uk/), ITN News sources
(part of JISC MediaHub, jiscmediahub.ac.uk/) or an individual
publisher’s journal archive (part of JISC Journal Archives, www.jiscjournalarchives.ac.uk/)
. The platforms maximise usage of this content by increasing its
visibility to end users and simplifying the user journey for each type
of resource. Institutions can join for an annual service fee, which is
ringfenced for reinvestment in the long-term maintenance and
development of the service.
About JISC Collections
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk
JISC Collections is a membership organisation, established by the UK
Higher and Further Education funding councils, to support the
procurement of digital content for education and research in the UK.
We are uniquely placed to provide our members with:
• expertise in negotiating and procurement, within the
scholarly communications sector, to save librarians time and money
• high-quality e-resource collections selected for academic
research, teaching and learning
• best pricing and licensing, using our collective influence
to obtain value for money
• environmental scanning and research into innovative
resources, licensing models and evaluation tools
• shared knowledge about e-resource acquisition and research.
About JISC
http://www.jisc.ac.uk
JISC inspires UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of
digital technologies. We invest heavily in research and development,
offering over 18 million users access to quality assured resources
through our secure network. We provide expert advice, help to save
money through national content license agreements and work with
colleges and universities to realise the potential of their existing
technologies. Everything we do has one aim - to maintain the UK's
position as a global leader in education.
About EDINA
http://edina.ac.uk
EDINA is a UK national academic data centre, designated by JISC on
behalf of UK funding bodies to support the activity of universities,
colleges and research institutes in the UK, by delivering access to a
range of online data services through a UK academic infrastructure, as
well as supporting knowledge exchange and ICT capacity building,
nationally and internationally. EDINA seeks to enhance the
productivity, quality and cost-effectiveness of research and education
in the UK and beyond. EDINA innovates, generating knowledge, expertise
and trust, through a focus on ease and continuity of access to
scholarly resources and tools. EDINA is based at the University of
Edinburgh. Together with the University Data Library, it is a division
of Information Services.
About Mimas
http://mimas.ac.uk
Mimas is an organisation of experts. Its role is to support the
advancement of knowledge, powering world-class research and teaching.
Technology is at the heart of everything Mimas does. As a nationally
designated data centre, Mimas hosts a significant number of the UK's
research information assets – and builds applications to help people
make the most of this rich resource. Based at The University of
Manchester as a Centre of Excellence, Mimas benefits from
collaboration with one of the UK's largest universities. Mimas has a
longstanding relationship with JISC, developing services that support
teaching, learning and research, and strong connections with research
councils, especially the ESRC. Mimas also partners with commercial
groups, universities and colleges, government agencies, and national
libraries and archives.
About The British Library
http://bl.uk
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and
one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world
class information services to the academic, business, research and
scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's
largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's
collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million
separate items representing every age of written civilisation and
includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents,
photographs, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken
languages. Up to 10 million people visit the British Library website - www.bl.uk
- every year where they can view up to 4 million digitised
collection items and over 40 million pages.
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