An introduction to how JISC projects are funded and sustained, with particular emphasis on concentration of projects funded under its Digitisation Programme

1. Joint Information Systems Committee 30 January 2015 | Slide 1
How JISC projects are funded and sustained –
2010 version
Alastair Dunning
Digitisation Programme Manager
JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee)
a.dunning@jisc.ac.uk, 0203 006 6065, @alastairdunning
http://digitisation.jiscinvolve.org/wp/
UCL Presentation, 19th
November 2010

2. the jisc network
(janet) gives all
higher
education
internet access

3. jisc also supports
sevices for the
educational
community such
as JISCmail,
MIMAS and
JISC Digital Media

4. jisc also funds innovative
projects to create new ideas
for the use of technology in
education

5. JISC Digitisation Programme
 Oversight of c.70 projects, c.£25m from 2004 - 2010
– ITN’s NewsFilm Online - http://www.nfo.ac.uk/
– Political Cartoon Archive – http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/
– British Film Institute InView http://www.bfi.org.uk/inview/
– 20th
-century Government Cabinet Papers -
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/
– Gateway of content - http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk
– Digitisation in UK -
http://web.me.com/xcia0069/uk-digitisation.html

6. How does funding happen?
 Not just universities and libraries working by themselves – universities
partly funded by taxes; although this is changing quickly (ie student fees)
 Complex set of politics, government, strategy and institutions
 http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/
 Each step on the chain has strategic guidance about how that money
can be spent
 Prime Minister > Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills > Higher
Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) > JISC
– Also via Research Councils or direct to universities
 How are the digitisation / digital humanities projects funded?
 PS – This is subject to significant change as effect of government policies are felt!

7. jisc will issue
calls to the
educational
community,
asking for
proposals

8. universities and maybe other
interested bodies will
submit applications

9. JISC then uses a peer-review
process to select the best
projects, using expertise from
the universities and also within
JISC itself

10. Call > Bids > Review > Projects
What are JISC’s ‘strategic imperatives’, i.e.
what do tell our projects that have to do
Bear in mind the issues from the prologue
JISC wants successful projects, of high
quality and of use for researchers, lecturers
and students

11. digital resources are not free to run – they need to be sustained in the long
term, both technically and intellectually
the Electronic Ephemera
collection has images from
18th
-20th
century. It was
digitised at Oxford but is
published by ProQuest, a
commercial company
http://johnjohnson.chadwyck.
co.uk/

12. build it and they will come? – Nope, users need to be actively engaged if
they are to use a resource
the Freeze Frame project went
through every UK
undergraduate course,
identifying which would be
interested in their collection of
polar images – geology,
geography, fashion, health
and nutrition, history …
http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/

13. without good metadata a resource will not be found nor
trusted
the Archival Sound
Recordings has over 44,000
audio files on wildlife, oral
history, the Holocaust, artist’s
testimonies, lectures. Each
recording is scrupulously
catalogued, so the rights are
clearly labelled, and the
recordings findable via
Google
http://sounds.bl.uk

14. innovation means that you can have exciting projects that
do new things
the First World War Poetry
Archive asked members of the
public to digitise and comment on
their own collections – the pool of
content and expertise was hugely
increased. Plus a whole trench
recreated in Second Life
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/
the PreRaphaelite resource is
beautifully designed and the
photographs are of a quality
unsurpassed
http://www.preraphaelites.org/

15. innovation means that you can have exciting projects that
do new things
Old Weather encourages the
public to transcribe naval logs
with weather reports thus
providing important data for
climate scientists
http://www.oldweather.org/
Visualising China will offer researchers
the opportunity build a directory of
historic photos of China
http://www.visualisingchina.org/

16. What does this mean for you
A lot goes on of which end users at
universities don’t know about
But is vital in creating sustainable, high-
quality resources
At the end you have free access to high
quality resources to use in classwork and
research (at least most of the time)

17. Credits
 Network - http://www.flickr.com/photos/funksoup/403990660/
 Federer – http://www.flickr.com/photos/franz88/1092672031/
 Lightbulb - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermininc/2777441779/
 Committee Men 1 - (Human Space Flight Plans Committee Report (200910220001HQ),
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/4035625512/
 Committee Room (Committee Room, Lloyd's),
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicamulley/3941173374/
 Application (My Application at Scanline) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/strahl/2392228947/
 Call Me - http://www.flickr.com/photos/trashit_t-shirt/2171336265/
 Other images taken direct from relevant JISC-funded projects
 If you think of questions later, tweet me @alastairdunning or email me a.dunning at //
jisc.ac.uk
 More content at http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/