JISC

In a highly networked world, little can be achieved without international collaboration. In May an international initiative came to fruition in May when the Knowledge Exchange - a partnership of four national ICT bodies, including JISC - announced the successful publishers selected to provide online resources under a multinational license across all four countries. The resources offered through the project were selected by a joint tender process run by the Knowledge Exchange through the EU competitive tender process. With 22 publishers submitting initial bids, the five selected were chosen through consideration of quality, national procurement strategies, innovation and value for money.

Podcast exploring this initiative
Licensing across borders – a roundtable discussion (Duration: 19:39)
  

Article: Partners across borders (Inform 20)
Article: Why a Wild West approach just won’t do (Guardian, April)

Calls went out in September 2007 for proposals to unite scholarly collections spilt between the UK and US. The aims of the project were to explore innovative approaches to digitisation and match skills and expertise in one country with collections to be digitised in the other in order to maximise coverage and impact across both countries. JISC worked in partnership with the US National Endowment for the Humanities Five projects were awarded funding in March 2008:

• The St Kitts-Nevis Digital Archaeology Initiative (Southampton University/ Thomas Jefferson)
• The World Wide Web of Humanities (Oxford Internet Institute/ Internet Archive)
• Shakespeare Quartos Archive (Oxford University/ Folgar Shakespeare Library)
• PhiloGrid (Imperial College/ Tufts University)
• Concordia (King’s College London/ New York University)

Podcast on this initiative: Transatlantic collaboration in digitisation
(Duration: 10:00) 

International library organisation OCLC were the main sponsor of the JISC Conference 2008 in April, representing a recognition of the international dimension of JISC’s history of involvement and ongoing work in the library sphere. Established more than 40 years ago and now the largest library-based cooperative in the world, OCLC develops products and services for the library community, undertakes research and connects libraries around the world.

Podcast interview: John MacColl, European Director, OCLC
(Duration: 13:15)

A JISC-funded project that developed a free and mature open source application for online education was shortlisted for the IMS Learning Impact Awards – delivered by international standards organisation IMS Global Learning Consortium. The WebPA Project, led by Loughborough and Hull Universities, was nominated as an international finalist for its work on online peer and self-assessment methods. Development of its application was considered particularly significant as it was designed as an institution-independent tool, allowing other universities to adopt the system and exploit its potential.

During the last year JISC received delegations from Sweden, Canada and Japan, while overseas delegations to its annual conference included those from Germany, the USA, the Netherlands, Italy and …?

The 7^th JISC CNI conference took place in Belfast in July and was attended by around 200 international delegates. Among the keynotes speakers was Diana Oblinger, the new president of Educause, the US-based higher education ICT body, who opened the conference. The theme of the conference was ‘Transforming the User Experience’ and a range of speakers from the USA and Europe spoke about initiatives that are supporting new generations of students with different expectations and different experiences of learning.

An international benchmarking study published during the last year found that, through JISC's work, the UK is in a position of influence internationally as far as the use of ICT in education and research is concerned. It also suggests that JISC is one of a small cadre of global leaders, perceived internationally as 'a catalyst for innovation' and that its major strength lies in its 'joining [of] new ideas and technology with issues that need solutions'.

Article JISC’s international work (Inform 20)