RLUK

The work of the JISC Observatory, provided by the ISC at UKOLN and JISC Cetis, has been featured in an article published in JISC Inform. The article describes how the JISC Observatory has pulled together the top issues that are on the horizon within the year, within two to three years and within four to five years. The areas include mobiles and cloud computing (which are important for institutions now); game-based learning, new scholarship, learning analytics and semantic applications (which are expected to be significant in two to three years) and augmented reality, collective intelligence, telepresence and Smart Objects (which are expected to be of importance in four to five years).

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and Digital Curation Centre (DCC) are delighted to announce a new issue of our joint newsletter ‘What’s New’.

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Monica Duke of UKOLN will give a presentation on Data Management Plans at the DCC East Midlands Roadshow  being held at the University of Loughborough.  She will consider research funder requirements and data management planning in terms of what funders expect, how to write a Data Management Plan, and what DMP Online can offer.

Catherine Pink and Rosemary Russell of UKOLN will be contributing to the CERIF Tutorial and UK Data Surgery on Thursday 9 February in Bath. Catherine will be giving a short introduction to the JISC-funded Research360 Project during the data surgery, demonstrating how the project aims to explore the use of CERIF in research data management.  Rosemary will contribute to the CERIF tutorial during the morning by providing a brief overview of the UK CERIF landscape.  She has also written a news feature on the importance of CERIF to UK Higher Education institutions which is available on the UKOLN Web site.

The Preface to this new RLUK report opens by declaring how it “is clear that as the nature of research within our institutions changes, so must the role of the library in supporting research”.

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Over 14,000 items of archived TV footage from 17 European countries are now available via the EUscreen online portal. 

EUscreen – the result of collaboration between 36 partners across Europe – provides a rich insight into Europe’s television heritage with content dating from the 1920s to the present day.

The portal includes rare footage and commentary on key events in history, including a 1962 interview with Martin Luther King about racial discrimination in the US. 

John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway and principal investigator on the EUscreen project, said: “This is a valuable resource for anyone interested in social history or indeed TV history, as it brings together tens of thousands of clips from across Europe. The portal is available to anyone (not only academics) and it is very easy to get absorbed and spend hours browsing all of the footage.”

The expansive footage has also proved popular as a learning aid for foreign language students, with clips available in 14 languages.

The British Universities Film & Video Council which is partly funded by JISC, and Royal Holloway, University of London, are the two UK partners in the project.  

The three year EUscreen project began in October 2009 and is funded by the European Commission. The project aims to standardise and provide a framework for the diverse collections held throughout Europe and encourage exploration of Europe’s rich and diverse history.

By the end of September 2012, there will be around 30,000 items of digital content freely available on the portal as the European providers continue to add carefully selected material.   

Explore the EUscreen footage

Partnerships in curating European digital resources is the theme of the 2nd LIBER International Workshop on Digital Preservation, which will take place over 7-8 May 2012 in Florence, Italy. Liz Lyon, Director of UKOLN, will be giving a presentation entitled Partnering for Research Data on the first morning of the Workshop programme.

The Workshop is being organised by the LIBER Steering Committee for Heritage Collections and Preservation in collaboration with the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale in Florence and the National Library of the Netherlands.

The upcoming Workshop theme is something of a response to the unmistakable advice ‘Do not go at this game alone’, which was given to LIBER libraries at the end of the first LIBER workshop on digital preservation in The Hague in 2010. Since then, the Euro crisis and budget cuts have only exacerbated the need to seek partnerships in securing long-term access to digital collections. But with whom can you partner? How does it work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of partnering?

This workshop will provide an overview of the best-known collaborative initiatives: the stakeholders involved, the basic set-ups, the legal foundations, the business models – and help delegates analyse which options are best suited to their organisation, type of collection and national culture. It will deal with organisational issues, as well as legal, financial and technical issues that will influence their choices. Critical questions will be asked by experts in the field, and there will be plenty of time for delegates to ask their own questions. Lastly, the workshop will showcase a variety of best practices.

The intention is that delegates will go home with a keen understanding of the types of collaborative practices available which will enable them to start discussing long-term preservation policies with their management team.

Details of the programme, registration information and information on hotels can be obtained from the Workshop Web page.

Information about the programme, speakers and content of the workshop may be obtained from Marcel Ras.

For information about the Workshop organisation, you are invited to contact Chiara Cirinnà.

University libraries are saving academics time by helping them find quality material more quickly, says a new report.

Academics are choosing the library as their first choice for getting hold of scholarly material because access is quick, it helps them make new connections to related information and the library may be the only place they can access that material.

Academics are then using their reading to inspire new thinking and improve their research results.

This picture of the library at the heart of university life has emerged as part of a new JISC Collections report which canvassed over 1000 academic and associate staff at six UK universities in 2011.

Lorraine Estelle is chief executive of JISC Collections which is responsible for negotiating journal and database deals for the higher and further education communities as a whole.  She said: "This report provides further evidence about the value and impact of the resources and discovery systems which UK academic libraries make available. This makes it even more important for JISC Collections to continue to work with publishers and libraries to secure affordable and sustainable journal deals for the future."

Although the survey focuses on academics, reading articles also helps them teach, so staff and students alike are benefiting from access to these resources.

Dr Hazel Woodward, chair of the electronic information resources working group and librarian at Cranfield University said: "At this time of economic constraint, it is important for policy makers and Library directors to provide additional evidence of the value of library-provided resources. Whilst in the past these resources have been regarded as implicitly valuable, this research goes some way to making that value more explicit by focusing on specific benefits and outcomes for academics."

The research is part of a wider international Lib-Value project being coordinated by the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee.  

Read the report

OCLC WorldShare Management Services was recognized as "Outstanding Service of the Year" during the TechColumbus Innovation Awards ceremony at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on February 2. WorldShare Management Services was selected in a category of organizations with more than 250 employees, and from entries in a variety of disciplines and industries. More than 1,100 people attended the premier technology event in central Ohio.

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JISC invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to help institutions and the HE sector as a whole develop their digital infrastructure, in particular those parts of the infrastructure concerned with research data management, research tools, research vocabularies relevant to specific disciplines, research information management, information and library infrastructure, and access and identity management.

 Programme  Description  Funds and Timescale Managing Research Data: Innovative Data Publication        Projects to design and implement innovative technical models and organisational partnerships to encourage and enable publication of research data. Total funding of up to £320,000 for 2-4 projects of between £80,000 and £150,000 per project.
Jun 2012 – Jul 2013.
Managing Research Data: Scoping a Service to Collate and Summarise Journal Research Data Policies  Feasibility study (augmented with the development of a pilot demonstrator and the analysis of a range of possible business models) for a potential service to provide knowledge of - and a ready source of information covering - the journal policy landscape for research data.     Total funding of up to £90,000 for one project June-Nov 2012 Managing Research Data: Research Data Management Training Materials

 Projects to design, pilot and test training materials for research data management adapted for the needs of:

• Discipline-focussed post-graduate courses.
• Discipline liaison librarians.
  • Research support roles, including dedicated data managers.

Total funding of up to £300,000 for 5-8 projects of between £30,000 and £60,000 each.  June 2012-April 2013 Managing Research Data: Training Materials Support and Synthesis Role     A support project for the above activity, to assist projects in following best practice, ensure reusability, engage stakeholders and synthesis outcomes.      Total funding of up to £80,000 for one project.  June 2012-July 2013. Research Tools: Emerging Research Tools         Emergent and novel hardware and software tools and techniques, particularly projects which will identify future trends and disruptive technologies.     Total funding of up to £400,000 for 3-5 projects of between £75,000 and £160,000 each.  June 2012-March 2013     Research Tools - Facilitating Research Communications     Advanced tools facilitating communications during the research process, for example within research communities, between research peers, engagement with wider audiences such as the general public.     Total funding of up to £200,000 for up to 3 projects of up to £100,000 each.  June 2012-March 2013 Research Tools - Projects to Develop Sustainable and Open Vocabularies for Research and Information Management     Projects to build upon existing vocabularies that support academic disciplines, to develop exemplars demonstrating the support of the semantics of a discipline.     Total funding of up to £300,000 for up to 5 projects of up to £70,000 each.  June 2012-Jan 2013 Research Tools - Synthesis Project Focused on Sustainable and Open Vocabularies for Research and Information Management     A project to synthesise lessons from the enhancement of research vocabularies, and ensure that those lessons and best practice are made available to guide others in similar endeavours.     Total funding of up to £50,000 for one project.  June 2012-March 2013 Research Information Management - Rapid Innovation Projects to lower the barriers to the adoption of CERIF in the sector, thereby allowing institutions to streamline and lower the cost of managing their research activities.     Total funding of up to £240,000 for up to 8 projects of up to £30,000 each.  June -November 2012. Library Systems (Information and Library Infrastructure) - Synthesis and Scoping Project A project to provide a new vision for the future of library systems and a 'roadmap' for the delivery of that vision.     Funding of up to £85,000 for one project.  June - December 2012 Library Systems (Information and Library Infrastructure) - Pathfinder Projects Pathfinder projects to investigate a broad range of potential new models and approaches to library systems and services.     Total funding of up to £250,000 for up to 10 projects of £20,000-£40,000 each.  June-December 2012 Access and Identity Management - Future Directions     Projects to embed Access and Identity Management related outputs and help build communities using these tools. Total funding of up to £250,000 for 5-10 projects between £20,000 and £40,000 each. Access and Identity Management - Raptor Evaluation Projects to evaluate Raptor. Total funding of up to £50,000 is available for 3-5 projects at £10,000-£20,000 each Access and Identity Management Identity Management Toolkit Case Studies. Total funding of up to £75,000 is available for 2-3 projects at £25,000-£50,000 each.

The deadline for receipt of proposals in response to this call is 12:00 noon UK time on 16 March 2012.

Eligibility

Proposals may be submitted by HE institutions funded via HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DEL Northern Ireland, and by FE institutions funded via BIS, SFC, DFES Wales and DEL Northern Ireland.

With regard to bids from Scottish institutions, SFC has applied a significant budget cut to JISC in 2011-12 AY.  Following consultation with Scottish institutions, SFC has requested that the impact of this budget cut falls on the number of innovation projects JISC is able to fund at Scottish institutions, rather than to cut or increase charges for national services, such as JANET, JISC Collections and JISC Advance. Whilst Scottish institutions therefore remain eligible to bid for project funding in response to this call, depending on the quality of the submissions, JISC may need to limit the number of projects awarded to Scottish institutions.

Proposals may be from single institutions or consortia unless indicated otherwise in the relevant call. Partnership arrangements may be developed outside the sector (for example with research council sites, publishers, commercial suppliers), but the lead partner must meet the criteria outlined above. Funds can only be allocated through the lead partner.

How can researchers, publishers and others interested in a data repository tell if it is any good or not? The Dryad UK project has released a 'Draft Framework for Assessing the Dryad Data Repository'. This was was among the final outputs recently published from Dryad UK, funded last year under the JISC Managing Research Data programme.  In this post report author Angus Whyte outlines some of the framework and welcomes comments on how it might be extended and applied to other data repositories.

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OCLC and Elsevier, a leading provider of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information products and services worldwide, have signed an agreement that will make the full text from Elsevier’s SciVerse ScienceDirect journals and e-books available to users of OCLC’s WorldCat Local.

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Are you looking to secure JISC funding this year? As competition grows for funds, our advice on successful bidding can help you make a strong application.

Sarah Porter, JISC director of innovation, said: “We want to attract bids from a wide range of universities and colleges, those that know JISC well and others that might be bidding for the first time or need additional help with their application. We know bidding for funds is a time-consuming process and we are therefore aiming to give organisations the best possible chance of being successful in their applications.”

More useful resources:

Find out what you can bid for now and sign up for funding updates

Read a briefing paper about applying successfully for funding (PDF)

Read a blog post from Joss Winn on his experience of writing JISC bids

Find out more about what JISC is looking for in grant bids

Find out what we’re looking for from responses to tender invitations

Are you a college? Your regional support centre can give you advice on writing an effective bid.  Find your nearest representative

JISC advice for successful bidding includes:

·    Describe how your proposed project meets the criteria set out in the call
·    Demonstrate how your idea  is aligned with the objectives of your college or institution, including what buy-in you have from senior management
·    Carry out an initial assessment of the risks of undertaking the project – and then mention this in your bid
·    Include an initial project plan and show how the project will be managed
·    Think ahead – include information about dissemination, embedding and evaluation mechanisms
·    Show that your project is sustainable once the funding has ceased – not just financially but also in terms of the skills sets of the people involved, and any data/software preservation
·    Go green – show that you have considered the environmental impact of your project, eg. server power and data storage space you need
·    Consider the wider benefits of the project  for UK education and research to show that your project is good value for money.  You might think about generating workshops, briefing papers or web pages to help disseminate the findings of your project more widely
·    Check you understand JISC’S position on IPR and that your bid is in line with this
·    Don’t let your bid fail on the easy stuff: make sure you stick to the page limit and get your bid in on time

Dominic Tate, repository and digital assets manager at Royal Holloway, university of London, who has compiled advice on successful JISC funding bids, said: “I would recommend an email or telephone call to the contact at JISC to sound them out about whether your idea for a bid is in scope for the call for funding. I would also recommend that you ask someone else outside your immediate team/colleagues to review a draft of your bid and give you feedback on the clarity of what you are proposing to do and deliver.”

Joss Winn, senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln who has managed a number of JISC projects, said:  “When I write a bid, it is a somewhat open, collaborative process that proposes to formalise and build on work that we’re already doing and what we already know. I know that this is not uncommon and is not a guaranteed ‘secret to success’, but it is worth underlining.”

He adds: “Bid writing can be a useful  reflective exercise - rather than simply 'bidding for money', it's part of the overall narrative of the project itself that starts with the bid and ends with the project outputs and papers.”

Dr Malcolm Read, head of Jisc, today begins his retirement after 18 years service.

He also leaves Jisc with an OBE, awarded in 2009 for his services to further and higher education. 

Malcolm said: “In my time at Jisc I have steered the organisation from its earliest foundations focussed on networking and the library sector  to a world-class organisation supporting education and research.  I am immensely proud of Jisc’s achievements, largely due to the enthusiasm and hard work of its staff and funded services. I look forward to following its future successes with interest. My retirement begins with a trip to Antarctica.  Such plans, combined with my confidence in Martyn Harrow and colleagues, means I am looking forward to moving into the next stage of my life.”

Read more recognition for Malcolm on his retirement:

JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT

Watch Malcolm’s personal milestones from his time at JISC: http://youtu.be/cI6WF4eDhU8

Jisc now welcomes its new head Martyn Harrow who will guide the organisation through the next year.

Martyn joins Jisc from Cardiff University, where he was chief information officer, and has previous experience in global business (Unilever and ICI), local government and running his own IT leadership consultancy and coaching practice.

Read more about Martyn’s appointment

Liz Lyon, Director of UKOLN, has been invited to give a keynote presentation to the Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA 2012) together with Eileen G. Abels, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Alyssa Goodman and Herbert Van de Sompel. In her presentation entitled Incremental Change or Revolution? Libraries and the Informatics Transform, Liz considers the current position of libraries and their degree of engagement with research data management, scholarly communications and citizen science together with how they might extend their stewardship of data-intensive research.

Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) is a biennial international conference that focuses on the challenging and rapidly evolving nature of libraries and information systems and services. In recognition of today’s dynamic online and mediated technological environment, this year’s conference has chosen ‘CHANGES’ as the title of its theme. LIDA 2012 brings together at the University of Zadar, Croatia, researchers, educators, practitioners, and developers from all over the world in a forum for personal exchanges, discussions, and learning. The Conference will take place over 18–22 June 2012.

The conference will divide into two parts:

Part I: CHANGES in the world of library services: Evolution and innovation (Programme Chair: Marie L. Radford,
(School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University))

Part II:CHANGES in the world of electronic resources: Information and digitization
(Programme chair: Christine L. Borgman, (Department of Information Studies, UCLA))

Further information can be obtained via the Conference Web site or by email.

Applications for Dev8D 2012 are coming close to capacity , but there are still a few places left. So, if you want to come, you will need to make your booking now.

This year, more than ever, the goal of Dev8D is to tool up delegates with skills in essential and emerging technologies for the coming year, and in a way that is practical and fun. There will be sessions for:

HTML 5
Programming in Python
Creating Moodle Plugins
Working with research data
Git version control and source code management
Understanding and using Linked Data
Using Redis
JavaScript and JQuery
Writing effective Moodle plug-ins
Making your web applications accessibility friendly
Coffee Script
Perl
Google Apps Scripting
and too many more to name…

Participants will also have the opportunity to interact with cool technologies like 3D printers and multi-touch tables and form their own sessions in our larger than ever ‘Pushing Ideas Further’ sessions. Bring your technical problems along and work through them with experts in the sector.

You can see more details and register for the event on the Dev8D Web site. The Dev8D Team hopes to see you there.

UKOLN will host meetings in Bath on the the Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) in February 2012 as a means of supporting better understanding of the use and benefits of this model to the UK Higher Education community. A news feature on CERIF and these meetings is available on the UKOLN Web site.

The Community Capability Model for Data Intensive Research Project (led by UKOLN and funded by Microsoft) is holding a workshop in Melbourne, Australia on 10 February 2012 to continue developing the model in consultation with the community.  Further information is available from the UKOLN Events Web site. Registration is now open.

  See discussion around this call

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) invites institutions to submit funding proposals for Projects to enhance digital infrastructure to support open content for education.

The deadline for receipt of proposals in response to this call is 12:00 noon UK time on Friday 27th January 2012.

Funding is available for projects starting from Monday 19th March 2012 for 4-6 months. All projects must be complete by Friday 19th October 2012 at the latest. Earlier finish dates are very welcome.

These are Rapid Innovation projects. The benefits of this approach are described in “Why Rapid Innovation?” In keeping with the size of the grants and short duration of the projects, the bidding process is lightweight (see the Bid Form) and the reporting process will be blog-based.

Eligibility

Proposals may be submitted by Higher Education (HE) Institutions funded by HEFCE.  FE institutions in England that teach HE to more than 400 FTEs are also eligible to bid provided proposals demonstrate work that supports the HE in FE agenda. HE and FE institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not eligible to bid but may be involved as partners in proposals led by HE institutions funded by HEFCE or FE institutions in England which meet the criteria outlined above.

Proposals may be from single institutions or consortia unless indicated otherwise in the relevant call. Partnership arrangements may be developed outside the sector (for example with research council sites, publishers, commercial suppliers), but the lead partner must meet the criteria outlined above. Funds can only be allocated through the lead partner.

Managing Research Data aims to introduce the broader research community to such core issues of data management as the terms of compliance with funder expectations, the context and recommended approaches to individual and institutional data management planning, the roles and responsibilities of key players in the research data lifecycle, as well as detailed reports of initiatives, strategies and organizations being deployed nationally and on a global scale.

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