In the new edition of the SCA newsletter read updates on the Seoul declaration, digitisation funding and Kangeroo; get a snapshot of the latest content-related reports; find out what’s happening in the world of IPR; plus SCA news in brief and dates for your diary.
Click through below to access the newsletter in pdf or Word format. You can also explore the archive of previous issues of the newsletter.
SCA newsletter July 2008 (pdf)
SCA newsletter July 2008 (Word)
On 23 June the SCA held a peer review workshop on Audience Analysis and Modelling, led by Chris Batt. It followed his Audience Analysis report.
Two case studies were provided: The London Hub and Online Audiences by Dylan Edgar, The London Hub; and CIBER and Deep Log Analysis by Professor David Nicholas, CIBER UCL.
Read on for the slides of these two case studies.
Chris Batt of the SCA will be holding a session at Oxford Internet Surveys’ Search! event at the British Library on 24 June. The SCA will also be sponsoring the lunch.
‘Search!’ is the third event in the 2007-2008 Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS) discussion seminars series. Previous events included The Links between Social Exclusion and Digital Disengagement, and the Social Networking Conference.
The different sessions that make up this day long event will discuss the past, present and future of searching for information and content. Social science and technological approaches are used to look at this topic from the perspective of both the producers and the users of searchable content.
There is further information about the programme at the OxIS website.
The second SCA Wales forum, held in Cardiff on 5 June, was opened by Dr Rhidian Griffiths, Director of Public Services at the National Library of Wales. He highlighted the importance of partnership in expanding access to online resources, mentioning the Library’s ‘digital mirror’project, its archive of the Welsh in Ohio, and library.wales.org as examples of how the NLW is working with other organisations to provide sustainable collections.
“Digital developments will also throw up questions about IP and new thinking about creators and users and their rights,” said Dr Griffiths.
“The balance is shifting in the digital world. It will promote new thinking about sustainability, thinking not only about this generation’s audience but audiences in generations to come. There are also considerations of widening access and defining new audiences and audiences who will function in different ways to the traditional. The aim is to give that wider audience a deeper understanding of what exists in our libraries museums and archives.”
Read on for coverage of Chris Batt’s presentation on audiences, Naomi Korn’s testbedding of a new model of IPR, and how the breakout session on business models asked itself ‘how do you solve a problem like JANET’? Continue reading ‘Wales forum: Audiences, IPR and business models’
The latest Home Nations Forum in Edinburgh focused on Standards. Alastair Dunning from JISC Digitisation gave a talk which illustrated how standards need to be thought of as existing in an organic, shifting environment and why the ramifications of choosing any standards need to be thought through. A lively discussion followed which continued through into the hour-long round table session, facilitiated by Alastair and Brian Kelly of UKOLN, which tackled some of the issues in more depth.
Read on for Alastair’s presentation, coverage of the further discussion, and Brian Kelly’s final roundup, plus details of the other presentations from the day.
Continue reading ‘Scotland Forum: Do we need to get Stalinist about standards?’
In the latest edition of the monthly SCA newsletter there’s an update on the Gowers review of IP, with special reference to orphan works, details of a new libraries action plan, Home Nations news in brief, plus dates for the diary and a report from the National Digital Inclusion conference.
Click through below to access the newsletter in pdf format.
On 23 June 2008, Chris Batt will be holding an afternoon London workshop on ‘Audience Analysis and Modelling’. It follows his Audience Analysis report.
The purpose of the workshop is:
To review the content and recommendations of the Final Report of the SCA work package on audience analysis and modelling that was undertaken during the first three months of 2008
To discuss the importance of audiences in the e-content value chain and whether there are other approaches to audiences and modelling should be considered
Following on from this workshop the report and recommendations of ‘Audience Analysis and Modelling’ will be revisited. This workshop will help plan the next phase of study of audience methodologies and the SCA’s investment in the future. This will form a part of the UK Content Framework, to be delivered in March 2009.
Read on for the full programme but please note that numbers are strictly limited so please register your place with Emma Beer at your earliest opportunity.
Continue reading ‘Upcoming workshop: Audience analysis and modelling’
On 8 May the SCA and Ithaka met in New York for a workshop held to discuss Ithaka’s paper on sustainability of online academic resources (a parallel event had been held in Lon in April, details here).
Below, and attached as a Word document, are Kevin Guthrie’s notes on some of the main themes that arose during the session. It includes a list of next steps that were identified for research or concrete measures that would advance sustainability.
We welcome your feedback on the recommendations as well as the notes, especially your sense of what possibilities strike you as having the highest priority. Over the coming weeks, we will be following up to assess what Ithaka and other organisations might do to act on these ideas. Thanks in advance for any input you can provide.
Continue reading ‘SCA/Ithaka sustainability study: New York session notes’
A final version of the Ithaka report on Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources is now available to download.
Read on for the Executive Summary and to download the full report as a pdf.
Continue reading ‘Download: Final Ithaka report on sustainability’
In order for the SCA to progress its mission to build a UK Content Framework, it is integral that we collaborate with the devolved administrations specifically and agencies and organisations with a Scottish, Northern Ireland and Welsh perspective more broadly.
We see these ‘Home Nations’ events as an opportunity to share knowledge and seek input from experts in these areas of the UK. We very much look forward to introducing the work of the SCA, learning more about the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish environments, and looking at how we can work together.
We are delighted to announce the next series of Home Nations Forums:
Contact Emma Beer if you are interested in attending these events or receiving more information about them.
Click through below to read the programme for each of these events.
Scotland Forum May 2008 Agenda
In the new, monthly, edition of the SCA newsletter, find out about forthcoming events, new reports and breaking news on the Digital Content Action Framework and the National Digital Inclusion Strategy, plus a seminar report from the Open Repositories conference 2008.
Click through below to access the newsletter in pdf format.
Understanding audiences, their needs and behaviours, is at the heart of the SCA programme. The SCA must provide compelling evidence of the value of content aggregation and discovery across organisational boundaries, demonstrating increased convenience to the user. Only with good, practical evidence will it be possible to win the hearts and minds of others.
To this end, Chris Batt has completed a series of 16 interviews with all SCA sponsors (except Becta) and other primary content suppliers and his full report, based on the evidence from these interviews, is available to download here. Phase two of this workpackage will shortly be announced through an ITT for further work in this area.
Read Chris Batt’s report: Audience analysis and modelling here:
Stuart Dempster, SCA
The SCA is funded by the BBC, Becta (the schools ICT agency), EPSRC, JISC, BL, MLA and the NHS (in particular, the national electronic library for health). The rationale for the SCA is about seamless access and the issue of lifelong leraning. The sponsors have recognised the benefits of working together in terms of expertise and funding. The analogy of the ‘marathon’ is useful when examining an individual’s changing and expanding access to e-content throughout their lives. A lot of public agencies provide different levels of access, and the SCA want to reduce the barriers that exist to access.
Continue reading ‘JISC conference - Strategic Content Alliance: building bridges to e-content’
I’d like to open today’s conference by welcoming delegates, including sponsors OCLC, visiting international delegates, the opening keynote speaker Lord Puttnam, and closing speaker Angela Beesley.
This is my final conference before my retirement - again - and I’d like to speculate on what the future holds. The theme of the conference this year is Enabling Innovation, but before you enable it, you must spot trends and deliver strategy.
The staggering features of the electronic revolution have been the rate of change and the eternal problem keeping up.
Continue reading ‘JISC conference introduction: Sir Ron Cooke’