JISC

Start date: 1 August 2007

End date: 31 July 2008

JISC theme(s): Information environment, e-Research, e-Learning

Committees: JISC Integrated Information Environment committee

Working Groups: Repositories & Preservation Advisory Group

To inform this and other work, JISC has commissioned an  inventory of non-commercial digital repositories and archives that will aim to identify and document every repository of digital content that is free to UK HE institutions and hosted within the UK. This will include archives and repositories that require registration, but not those requiring subscription.  In due course, the information from this exercise will be added to the Information Environment Service Registry

Repository interoperability

• A project to investigate the feasibility of approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share material.
• WoCRIG A technical support project to develop digital repository interoperability, to support the workplan of the Common Repositories Interfaces Group.  This work will develop Service Usage Models relating to repositories (to develop the e-Framework for Education and Research), and will explore and address real-world interoperability challenges in the repositories arena via one or more 'plugfest'-type events during 2008.  A series of focused interoperability demonstrator projects have also been funded in support of this initiative.
• Image Case Studies A small series of targetted case studies in key subject areas on how images are used, and how community image collections can support this use by offering facilities to deposit and share images owned by the HE community. This work is being undertaken with close reference to the recommendations of the CLiC community image collections report.
• Two small OAI-ORE experiments have been funded, which will implement the alpha specifications from the OAI-ORE project, and will feed into the development of a stable release of the ORE specifications later in 2008.  One of these - TheOREM, has been extended to look at using the 'Integrated Content Environment' to support e-theses workflow.
• RAMLET study A small piece of work has been funded at JISC-CETIS to list and analyse the different implementation strategies for RAMLET, with a view to scoping future implementation work.
• International interoperability work focusing on electronic theses and dissertations as compound objects, being undertaken in partnership across Europe and the USA.
• DSpace 2.0 development JISC is supporting specific UK-based work to improve the interoperability of DSpace, including implementing of both the Scholarly Works Application Profile and the SWORD protocol.
• Eportfolio scenario study This is taking a specific scenario, around a job application, and looking at how eportfolio, repositories and other systems can work together to support that.
• Repositories and Research Management Systems - a project to identify and document a series of case studies of how repositories have been embedded within research management systems and processes. 
• Options review of the ways in which institutional and subject repositories can productively interact, focusing on repositories of research papers, and looking at the steps that might be taken to improve the way they interact, and the issues that might arise for key stakeholders in taking such steps. The project is very practical and does not look to address strategic or policy questions around particular repositories.
• Usage statistics review - a small piece of work is being funded to make progress towards a position wherein item-level usage statistics are comparable across a range of sources.

It is worth noting that this work complements work being undertaken as a part of the Repositories and Preservation Programme, for example, that developing and supporting community uptake for metadata application profiles in the areas of geospatial data, images and time-based media.  For more information on these, please contact Balviar Notay or Neil Jacobs.

Research data

• Data Audit Framework development project will develop, provide examples for, and a limited support facility for a Data Audit Framework. This will enable all universities and colleges to carry out an audit of departmental research data collections, awareness, policies and practice for research data curation and preservation.
• Pilot / exemplar implementations of the Data Audit Framework JISC has funded four of these, each to implement a version of the ‘Data Audit Framework’ methodology which should result in information that can be collected centrally and – where appropriate – shared via a resource also to be created by the ‘Data Audit Framework’ project
• Digital Curation Summer School will produce a dynamic, practical, replicable, and extendable educational framework that will provide participants with the skills they will need to conceptualise, create, manage, describe, store, and reuse data over time.
• The skills, role and career structure of data scientists and curators An assessment of current practice and future needs.  This study will examine and make recommendations on the role and career development of data scientists;  examine and make recommendations on the associated supply of specialist data curation skills to the research community; and make an assessment of the value and potential of extending data handling, curation and preservation skills within postgraduate and undergraduate curricula.
• StoreLink will combine and further develop the results of the StORe and CLADDIER projects to provide a toolkit for cross-linking data and publications, and trial the tools in further applications in Social Science and Crystallography.
• To complement a recent study on the costs of preserving research data, and the UK Research Data Service feasibility study, some work is being funded to explore the benefits in curating and sharing research data.
• In the specific area of geospatial data, the ShareGeo project will create a facility whereby those with Digimap logins will be able to share geospatial datasets, including those derived from Digimap data, with each other.

Finally, in response to a recommendation within the synthesis report on 'Sharing eLearning Content', work has been commissioned to bring together the evidence in support of a business case for sharing learning materials.