Presentation at ECDL Paris, 1998

1. JISC Digital Library initiatives
ECDL, Paris September 1999
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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2. JISC digital library initiatives:
contents
Background
JISC programme outlines
The DNER
International initiatives
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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3. JISC: background
Joint Information Systems Committee
• sub-committee of funding councils
• £35 million per year standard budget (plus extras)
• funds JANET/SuperJANET
• funds services (eg BIDS, EDINA, MIMAS etc)
• funds R&D programmes
Funding is “top-sliced”
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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4. JISC: sub-committees
JCN: networks (£20 M?)
JCAS: authentication & security (middleware, £2 M?)
JCEI: information (digital library, £8 M?)
JCIEL (?): learning environments (£2 M?)
JCALT: human & MIS issues (£2 M?)
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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5. Networking
£40 million extra for SuperJANET 4
• major procurement
Involvement in Internet 2 etc
Market testing (eg Mailbase)
No major R&D programmes
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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6. Middleware
New committee: work areas roughly
• authentication and authorisation
• security and privacy
• e-commerce?
• remote DB access and metadata?
Service based on ATHENS
Link to Internet 2
Not sure how committee will proceed
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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7. DNER
Distributed National Electronic Resource
... to make sense of burgeoning heterogeneous
information resources
... a national scale digital library project
... emphasising integration
... needing design, infrastructure, development,
research, and content.
Model based on portals, services and data providers.
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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8. DNER development
Major Circular November 99, to close January 2000
Projects to develop the DNER
• build and connect the infrastructure
• experiment with different types of portals
• experiment with different services
• incorporate more types of content.
Evaluation and feedback
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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9. Learning & teaching
Major funding injection (£10 million new money
over 3 years)
Part of DNER circular
• enhancing JISC services for learning & teaching
• developing content
• digital libraries and learning/teaching environments
• ... and evaluation
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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10. Human & other issues
Human and organisational Issues associated
with network security
C&IT skills development
Common interface study
Also have programme on information strategies
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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11. Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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12. International
JISC/NSF programme
• Part of NSF International Digital Libraries Initiative
• 6 projects
• £500,000 per year for 3 years
Opportunistic!
High profile, popular with the paymasters
Major benefits in improving communication
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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13. Future international?
No specific budget, although seeking a small
general international budget
• specific ideas would help
Neutral stance: needs to benefit JISC, to justify
cost (including establishment)
Earliest spend would be 2001
• more likely 2001/2002
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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14. Conditions for inter-
programme success
Mutual advantage and willingness to share the load
Politics and timing: convergence
Resources: significantly greater overhead
Flexibility: need to adapt hallowed practice to
accommodate
Trust
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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15. Suggestion
Add to new circulars
• “Proposers are invited to suggest optional additional
modules to their proposal, to be performed by
international partners,and funded by non-[local]
funding sources. Viable proposals of this type will be
viewed favourably.”
Allows separability of funding decisions but puts
the onus on the project’s international partners to
organise.
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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16. JISC: more information
See JISC web pages
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/
eLib web pages maintained by UKOLN
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/elib/
Mailbase lists including
jisc-announce@mailbase.ac.uk
lis-elib@mailbase.ac.uk
Chris Rusbridge: JISC Committee for Electronic Information 27/09/12
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