JISC

This Group was set up by CALT and Committee on Electronic Information (CEI) in May 1997. Its remit was to look at take-up and use, including non-use, of JISC's networked information services to better inform market activity, and to explore the mechanisms by which the use of networked information services can be embedded into the customs and practises of HEIs and users. An interim report was provided to CALT and CEI at the end of 1997.

The final report was approved at the CALT meeting in May, the CEI meeting in November and the subsequent JISC meeting in December 1998. A Circular has recently been issued inviting institutions to bid to undertake the different strands of the framework.

• Membership
• Terms of reference

The group's work focused in the following areas: impact and effects of resource allocation on the uptake and use of electronic information services; management development; synthesis of user information collected by projects funded by the JISC, Funding Councils, EU and in the US; and the commissioning of a study to draw up a systematic framework for monitoring and evaluating patterns and intensity of use.

The Group organised two events, firstly a seminar entitled "Working Together", held in Warwick in June 1997 and aimed at institutional teams in Library, Information and Computing Services. It provided an opportunity for a small number of institutional teams of librarians and technologists to develop techniques to increase the effectiveness of collaborative efforts and to begin a planning process for collaborative projects. The workshop has since been successfully piloted within an HEI. An organisation called Hudson Rivers is currently turning the facilitation notes into a pack that will be disseminated more widely within the HE community.

Secondly, a seminar was held on 30-31 October 1997, on the impact and effect of resource allocation on uptake and use of electronic information, aimed at improving understanding of the use of JISC's services and electronic information services generally, and particularly the factors which operate at the institutional level to promote or inhibit the effective use within individual universities. The outcomes of the workshop are reflected in the final report of the working group.