The content of these slides (or better, the great majority of it) derives from an initial analysis of the results of a survey the JISC Content team circulated among previously funded projects in the areas of digitisation and content. Comments to each slide have been incorporated into the slides, as they are quite extensive. The survey aimed to find out more about how digitised collections were being used and the impact such projects have had on their hosting institutions and more broadly.

1. Some facts and
figures on JISC
digi impact
Paola Marchionni, Digitisation Programme Manager, p.marchionni@jisc.ac.uk
@paolamarchionni
Peter Findlay, Digitisation Programme Manager, p.findlay@jisc.ac.uk
@PFindlayJISC

2. [Notes on slide 1]
The content of these slides (or better, the great majority of it) derives from an initial analysis of the results of
a survey the JISC Content team circulated among previously funded projects (since 2007) in the areas of
digitisation and content, see all projects here http://www.jisc.ac.uk/digitisation.
The survey aimed to find out more about how digitised collections were being used and the impact such
projects have had on their hosting institutions and more broadly.

3. Some tools
TIDSR - http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/
Content projects survey
slide 3

4. [Notes on slide 3]
The JISC Content team developed the Toolkit for the Impact of Scholarly Digitised Resources (TIDSR)
http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr to provide some guidance to projects and their institutions on the range
of qualitative and quantitative methods that can be used to gather data about usage and impact of digitised
resources. The toolkit also contains case studies, reports, and a knowledge base with articles. This is now
embedded within the JISC digitisation and content programmes. Many respondents to the survey used the
approaches suggested in the toolkit to measure usage and impact.
The survey was circulated to 103 projects and 62 responses were received. These slides contain only some
high level findings. We are conducting a more thorough interpretation of the results which we plan to make
available as soon as possible.

5. Stories of
impact…
impact for
whom?
slide 5

6. [Notes on slide 5]
The survey asked both quantitative and qualitative questions about the digital collections that had been
created or enhanced, how these collections were being used and what impact the JISC-funded work had had
within institutions. As expected, a number of respondents didn’t always have the information requested
because they hadn’t necessarily been capturing the data, or because it wasn’t available to them (eg in the
case of commercial partnerships).
So, a disclaimer: these “stories” of impact represent only a partial picture, but one which however reveals
some initial indicative patterns of impact and areas where concrete positive change has been identified and
which we could pursue.
We also looked at impact from the point of view of who is being affected by the change, what kind of
indicators might be useful to consider in relation to different stakeholders, recognising that there are not
always clear boundaries among the different stakeholders affected and that over time some stakeholders
maybe affected in different degrees.

7. Students 84% of respondents said digi
collections are embedded in
courses – 16% don’t know
Higher attainment Digital literacy Employment opportunities
“all students using manuscripts students trialling different searches- “great to work with Zandra, with a real
in an English language course information seeking skills design team… getting to know what it
got first-class degrees” could be like in the industry”
slide 7

8. [Notes on slide 7]
Responses to the survey highlighted that the great majority of collections that have been digitised or clustered are
now embedded in courses. This ranges from being embedded in courses within the institution that created the
digital collections (the majority of cases), to being part of courses within other institutions in the UK, with some
embedded within courses internationally. It was clear that that respondents were not always aware of the extent
to which collections were embedded, so instances of collections being embedded into courses could actually be
greater.
Higher attainment: quote from lecturer at the University of Manchester. The John Rylands Library digitised
medieval manuscripts as part of the “In the begynning” project http://bit.ly/RSVJJ8 . The collection is delivered
through the Library’s digital collections platform http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/servlet/Man4MedievalVC~4~4
Other respondents to the survey also mentioned that students achieved better quality results when engaging with
digitised content from special collections, eg resources such as HISTPOP (Historical Online Population Reports)
http://www.histpop.org and STEM WISHEES (STEM Writing in Schools Higher Education and Employment Settings)
http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/wishees
Students attainments level seems a useful indicator of the positive change that a digital resource can bring about.
Digital literacy: interaction with digital collections also contributes to developing digital literacy skills. The
“Connected Histories” project http://www.connectedhistories.org/ set up a students placement and as part of
their work students had to blog http://connectedhistories.tumblr.com/ about their use of the collection. The
researchers of tomorrow’s report highlighted how researchers need more training in information seeking skills
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jul/11/researchers-of-tomorrow-report.
Employment opportunities: a number of projects have offered students paid work placements, which have
provided them with opportunities to increase their technical knowledge and skills and also get a flavour for what
it means to work in a particular industry. The quote on the slide is from a video (http://bit.ly/zandravideo)
produced by the Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection project
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/content2011_2013/ZandraRhodes.aspx which
features students working in the studio of fashion designer Zandra Rhodes to help digitise her collection of
garments and sketches.

9. Researchers
Research outputs, New research methods Research funding
citations
“We’re discovering research GrassPortal secured EC
questions that we didn’t have funding of 350 Euros to
“…19th C pamphlets
when we started” Prof Peter work on sustainable
collection had around 51,800
Ainsworth development of perennial
PDF downloads and over 4,380
grasses as biofuel crop.
citation captures” Dr Julian Ball

10. [Notes on slide 9]
Direct impact on research was more difficult to establish, there was less data available from respondents, and
perhaps it’s more difficult to identify indicators. Traditional indicators such as published articles and
citations presented some problems, eg: the long lead time for papers to be published (some projects had
launched relatively recently and wouldn’t expect to have made an impact on research publications yet);
digital resources don’t always offer downloadable citations making it difficult to track citations at a later
stage; academics still tend to cite the paper-based version of a resource even if they consult the digital
version; some projects simply did not have that information because they never sought to track it.
Research outputs: these figures which refer to the JISC-funded 19th C Pamphlets projects based at the
University of Southampton were published in the Guardian Higher Education Network blog
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jul/09/university-of-southampton-
library-digitising-resources (not the JISC survey). The collection is delivered via JSTOR
http://about.jstor.org/content/19th-century-british-pamphlets.
New research methods: The availability of large corpuses of digital data allows more sophisticated ways of
interrogating such data and conducting research than previously possible, as Prof Peter Ainsworth states in
One Culture, CLIR, http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub151/pub151.pdf p 22, the evaluation report for
phase one of the Digging into Data challenges programme, which JISC supported with other partners
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/diggingintodata.aspx.
Research funding: a number of respondents revealed that the experience gained and outputs created though
their digitisation/content project provided the basis for obtaining further funding for other research projects,
whether at national or international level. One example of this is the GrassPortal project
http://www.grassportal.org, University of Sheffield.

11. Institutions
90% developed a
more strategic
approach to digi
Skills, strategy and Increasing profile Income and savings
infrastructure 84% said project enabled to increase 72% attracted further project
89% said project allowed inst profile of own collection/institution. funding. British Library Sound
to increase capacity and Uni of Bradford attracted American Archive calculated an
infrastructure to create and MA students thanks to their profile estimated saving to the
sustain digitised content in 3D digitisation of human remains HE sector of about £756,000
slide 11

12. [Notes on slide 11]
Projects involving digitisation of content and related activities bring benefits not only to primary users of that
content but also to institutions at strategic level and to the whole of the HE sector, and beyond.
Skills, strategy and infrastructures
89% of respondents to the survey said that through JISC funding their team/institution increased its digital
capacity and infrastructure so that it is now in a better position to create and sustain digital content in the future.
76% of respondents also felt working on the project had a positive impact on relationships within their institution
such as through collaborative working or working more effectively.
95% of respondents said the funding allowed the team/Principal Investigator to increase their knowledge and
skills in creation and management of digitised content.
Increasing profile
Institutions increased their profile through various means, including local and national press coverage,
conference presentations, social media and dissemination activities within their own interest area/networks.
Profile raising activities generated increased use of collections and requests to use digitised items commercially,
thus leading to income streams; new partnerships; project/institution being held as example of good practice in a
specific area; institutions using digitised collection as a way of showcasing a USP in international recruitment.
The Digitised Diseases project http://barc.sls.brad.ac.uk/3dbones/ at the University of Bradford has been able to
attract international students after building up an international reputation for their work on 3D digitisation of
human remains.
Income and savings
Only a minority of projects have developed income streams from their collection, with the majority never setting
up to do this. However, many respondents highlighted how JISC funding contributed to achieving efficiencies
through internal cost savings, and that other types of non-financial benefits were achieved . Reduced costs to
users for consulting digitised material was also mentioned as part of “financial benefits”.
For example, the British Library Sound Archive http://sounds.bl.uk/: digitised 42,000 fully documented sound
recording files. Based on institutional fees for paid subscription archives, estimated value is £2700 x 280
institutions = £756,000 p.a.

13. Communities
Widening participation Open innovation Best practice
89% of respondents said project Crowdsourcing employed as The Great War Archive model
allowed them to develop partnerships digitisation and research was replicated nationally and
with institutions/organisations methodology. Old Weather internationally by Europeana
that benefited their own institution project :1m log book
pages transcribed, 28k volunteers
slide 13

14. [Notes on slide 13]
Digitisation and digital content creation/curation activities provide opportunities for institutions to deliver
their business and community engagement agenda in innovative ways often through partnerships within and
outside the HE sector, including private organisations.
Widening participation: 89% of respondents to the survey said that their project allowed them to develop
partnerships with other institutions/organisations that benefited their institution. 89% also felt that the
projects allowed them to build, or further develop, new partnerships with academics and researchers.
Projects within the JISC Developing community content programme
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/communitycontent.aspx and the eContent
programme 2011, Strand B: developing community collections
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/econtent11.aspx have deliberately engaged with
communities outside of the Higher Education sector. The benefits identified by these projects include:
strengthening strategic links between HE institutions and local communities; access to special collections
outside of the HE sector; more digitisation of content or enhancing existing digital content; skills
development and exchange; mutual promotional opportunities. (Screen grab from World of Kays project
http://www.worldofkays.org/)
Open innovation: the Old Weather project http://www.oldweather.org/ produced a digital interface to engage
volunteers from the general public to transcribe WW1 Royal Navy ships’ logs to aid scientists in research on
climate change. Scientists alone could have never done this type of work. The project terminated recently but
as in previous projects run by the same team, it is likely that the team will produced scientific papers co-
authored with citizens who contributed to the transcription of the log books.
Best practice: a useful indicator of impact is the degree to which approaches developed by one project are
adopted by others within or outside the sector. The model for collecting and digitising items belonging to the
general public through roadshows which was developed by the Great War Archive
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/ was emulated by Europeana http://www.europeana1914-
1918.eu/en resulting in collection days gathering WW1 related material being held across Europe.

15. Next step
The JISC Content team is analysing the results of the survey in a
more comprehensive way.
Once analysis is complete we will publish a fuller report on the
survey results.
The findings of the survey will feed into future JISC activity in the
area of digitisation and content and impact assessment more
generally.
slide 15

16. Credits
All images are web site screen grabs apart form:
Slide 9, from left to right:
Image 1: ChemConnector http://www.flickr.com/photos/26814164@N05/6003727019/ -
Image2: University of Maryland: http://www.flickr.com/photos/umdnews/5985718936
Image3: Dave Gray: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davegray/3210489602/ -
Slide 11: from left to right :
Image 1: Earth Infrastructures http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthinfrastructure/6004632877/
Apart from images on slides 9 and 11
slide 16