Stepping Away from the Silos

Stepping Away from the Silos

by Margaret Coutts
Released November 2016
Publisher(s): Chandos Publishing
ISBN: 9780081002797

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Book description

For over twenty years, digitisation has been a core element of the modern information landscape. The digital lifecycle is now well defined, and standards and good practice have been developed for most of its key stages. There remains, however, a widespread lack of coordination of digitisation initiatives, both within and across different sectors, and there are disparate approaches to selection criteria. The result is ‘silos’ of digitised content.

Stepping away from the Silos examines the strategic context in the UK since the 1990s and its effect on collaboration and coordination of exemplar digitisation initiatives in higher education and related sectors. It identifies the principal criteria for content selection that are common to the international literature in this field. The outputs of the exemplar projects are examined in relation to these criteria. A range of common practices and patterns in content selection appears to have developed over time, forming a de facto strategy from which several areas of critical mass have emerged. The book discusses the potential to improve strategic collaboration and coordinated selection by building on such a platform, and considers planning options in the context of work on national digitisation strategies in the UK and internationally.

  • Summarises the rise of publicly funded digitisation in the UK from the 1990s to date and identifies the need to improve coordination and content selection criteria
  • Reviews the role of digitisation in government and organisational strategies from the 1990s to the present day
  • Examines the strategic position of collaboration within and across different organisations
  • Identifies common selection criteria and outlines the coverage of exemplar projects 
  • Discusses the apparent emergence of a de facto selection strategy and the potential for national strategic planning of digitised content based on existing outputs and improved collaboration

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Series Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Biography
  7. Foreword and Acknowledgments
  8. Editorial Notes
  9. Glossary
  10. Chapter 1. Introduction: Digitisation since the 1990s
    1. 1.1. Initiative and Innovation
    2. 1.2. Expansion, Consolidation and Review
    3. 1.3. ‘A Core Function’
    4. 1.4. Current Issues
    5. 1.5. A Silo Culture
    6. 1.6. Content Selection
    7. 1.7. Scope and Definitions
  11. Chapter 2. Strategic Context
    1. 2.1. UK and Devolved Governments
    2. 2.2. Higher Education
    3. 2.3. Research Councils
    4. 2.4. National Libraries
    5. 2.5. Public Libraries
    6. 2.6. Museums
    7. 2.7. Archives
    8. 2.8. Independent Organisations
    9. 2.9. Strategic Context in Summary
    10. 2.10. Collaboration
  12. Chapter 3. Digitisation Programmes and Outputs in the UK
    1. 3.1. Electronic Libraries Programme
    2. 3.2. Non-Formula Funding of Specialised Research Collections in the Humanities
    3. 3.3. Research Support Libraries Programme
    4. 3.4. Jisc
    5. 3.5. Research Councils
    6. 3.6. New Opportunities Fund
    7. 3.7. British Library
    8. 3.8. National Library of Scotland
    9. 3.9. National Library of Wales
    10. 3.10. The National Archives
    11. 3.11. National Records of Scotland
    12. 3.12. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
    13. 3.13. Wellcome Library
    14. 3.14. Arcadia Fund
    15. 3.15. Coherence of Content
  13. Chapter 4. Content Selection for Digitisation: Principal Criteria and Mapping of UK Outputs
    1. 4.1. Content Selection Criteria: Development of Principal Common Criteria
    2. 4.2. Selection Criteria for Intellectual Content in Digitisation Programmes
    3. 4.3. Value
    4. 4.4. Thematic and Subject Content
    5. 4.5. Format and Medium
    6. 4.6. Coherence
    7. 4.7. Virtual Reunification
    8. 4.8. Clustering
    9. 4.9. Funders
    10. 4.10. Development of Critical Mass
  14. Chapter 5. The Future for Collaboration
    1. 5.1. Envisioning a UK National Digitisation Strategy
    2. 5.2. National Digitisation Strategies Beyond the UK
    3. 5.3. Realising a UK National Digitisation Strategy
    4. 5.4. Capitalising on Collaborative Culture
    5. 5.5. Stepping Away From the Silos
  15. Appendix 1
    1. Arcadia Fund
    2. Arts and Humanities Research Council
    3. British Library
    4. eLib
    5. JISC
    6. 2014
    7. National Library of Scotland
    8. National Library of Wales
    9. National Records of Scotland
    10. NOF-Digitise: New Opportunities Fund Digitisation for Learning Materials Projects
    11. Non-Formula Funding of Specialised Research Collections in the Humanities
    12. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
    13. Research Support Libraries Programme
    14. The National Archives
    15. Wellcome Library
  16. Appendix 2
  17. Appendix 3
    1. Mapping of Digitisation Outputs to Selection Criteria
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Stepping Away from the Silos
  • Author(s): Margaret Coutts
  • Release date: November 2016
  • Publisher(s): Chandos Publishing
  • ISBN: 9780081002797