British Standards Group News

The JIBS BSOl group had a productive meeting with BSI on the 13 June. Members of the group had been given access to the first draft of the new version of BSOL and had already sent some comments. Members of the group had been impressed with the test site and agreed that searches on it are far more effective than on the present site. However they highlighted several issues relating to faults, the use of Boolean logic in searches and on the design and layout of the new site.


BSI were very receptive to the comments and suggestions made by the group and were aware of many of the faults. They are in dialogue with the company working on the product. Implementation would not go ahead till bugs had been fixed and some design changes made. Implementation for larger users , like Universities, would be unlikely to go ahead until mid to late September at the earliest. BSI recognised that the University sector preferred changes to software to be in the summer and not in term time but they were determined not to implement software until it met the standards required by their users.

Roger Hines

JISC Library Advisory Group

The library advisory working group was established in May 2007. The core aims of the library advisory working group are to help JISC Collections improve the service it provides to the academic community by advising on issues related to customer service, consultations and evaluation of online resources, and licensing and renewals of agreements.

JIBS are pleased to be represented on this new group. The first meeting identified a work plan for the group and provided advice to JISC on the e-books observatory consultation.

There is a web page at:

http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/workinggroups/library_advisory.aspx

where you will find the draft terms of reference for the group. Further information including minutes of meetings will be added in due course.

JISC National E-books Observatory UK HE Consultation

http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/consultation/

Deadline Wednesday 18th July

The JISC national e-books observatory project aims to license for 2 YEARS ONLY collections of e-books that are core texts for UK HE taught course students in the following subject areas:

• Engineering
• Medicine (excluding mental health and nursing
• Media Studies
• Business and Management

JISC will fund publishers to make available a selection of their core e-books to ALL HE institutions FREE for the duration of the project (2 years). We have received a number of proposals from publishers and aggregators and each proposal included a list of e-books, but we need your expertise to identify which e-books are core texts and which will best support your students. We need to know this so that we can license the best e-books and create a CORE COLLECTION in each subject area.

To take part in the consultation please:

1. Read the introduction at: http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/consultation/

2. Rank the e-books that are core texts for your taught course students in the 4 subject areas. Please follow the instructions provided at http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/?page_id=46

3. Feedback about platform functionality, standards compliance etc. This will inform the licensing negotiations. Submit your feedback on these questions using the online form at http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/?page_id=47

Please do take part in the consultation. If you have any questions please contact JISC Collections on ebooks@jisc.ac.uk

For further information on the project please see www.jiscebooksproject.org

Satellite images of the British Isles to be made free of charge to the JISC community - Satellite Image Data Service

JISC funding for the Satellite Image Data Service means that from August 2007, UK further education, higher education institutions and research councils will be able to access this resource completely free of charge.

The Satellite Image Data Service is a MIMAS service that provides access to and support for a range of satellite imagery for the British Isles for research and teaching purposes. The Satellite Image Data Service provides access to satellite imagery for UK coverage from four satellites; Landsat, SPOT, ERS and ENVISAT and also hosts a KGPS survey for the British Isles. The satellite data can be used as stand alone, with image or graphics software, or with other mapping data, e.g. Ordnance Survey data. A Digital Elevation Model of the whole of the British Isles at 25-metre resolution is available. A series of image processing courses for remote sensing is available free of charge to registered institutions.

Further details can be found here.

JISC Collections Consultation on 19th Century UK Periodicals Online

19th Century UK Periodicals Online is a major new multi-part series which covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century world. It provides an invaluable fully-searchable facsimile resource for the study of British life in the 19th century – from art to business, and from children to politics. Few of the materials in this extensive online collection have ever been reissued, in any format since original publication. All the original colour work has been specially captured for this programme. JISC Collections would like your feedback about the potential acquisition of this collection and the benefits it might have for teaching and learning in your institutions. Please provide feedback by 30th June using the online submission form at: http://www.galeuk.com/jisc19century/

Further details can be found here.

Trialing and testing Journal Business Models: final report is now available

In 2004 JISC commissioned a study of online journal business models. This was undertaken by Rightscom in collaboration with Information Power and the final report was published in April 2005. Following the publication of the report, JISC decided to try and test two of the models addressed in the Report. These were:

• PPV Converting to Subscriptions (PPV)

• Core Plus Peripheral (Core+)


JISC commissioned Content Complete Ltd (CCL) to find possible participants from the publishing and library communities and coordinate the testing of the models by way of trials, and these took place during 2006. The trials involved 5 publishers and ten university libraries. Two of the trials addressed variations of the original Core Plus Peripheral model and the three other trials addressed variations of the PPV Converting to Subscription. The report based on Content Complete's Ltd's main findings and recommendations to be made is now available.

Further details can be found here.

Major enhancements to Grove Art and Grove Music Online from September 2007

Grove Art Online and Grove Music Online will be re-launched this September with new content and new functionality. They will also form the cornerstones of two new online gateways, Oxford Art Online and Oxford Music Online.

Further details can be found here.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography celebrates "The Summer of Love"

It's 40 years since the ‘Summer of Love’. To celebrate, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography links up with the American National Biography to remember some of the performers in Britain and the United States. Don't forget that a JISC Collections agreement is available for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

In June 1967 the Beatles released Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, complete with Sir Peter Blake's world-famous album cover.

But have you ever wondered just who are all those faces in the crowd?

Discover the real lives behind the cut-outs with Oxford University Press' …

interactive Sgt Pepper record sleeve

And having found out … why not listen to the life of George Harrison (one of the Oxford DNB's regular podcast episodes)?

Further details can be found here.