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In our first edition of 2012, we focused on ways for hard-pressed institutions to use technology to showcase their work and to work smarter. Four stories struck a real cord with readers, proving that this theme was exercising your minds, too…
Digital Public Library of America
Director of Harvard University Library Robert Darnton shared his belief that ‘the spread of knowledge benefits everyone without reducing its value’ and told us his plans to create what could be the biggest public library the world has ever seen. And, ahead of the Digital Public Library of America’s projected launch date of April 2013, he spoke passionately about his vision that it should be set firmly in the open framework, where everyone, everywhere, will have access to it at no cost through the internet.
It’s a vast project, fraught with technical and legal difficulties, and he shared his views and insights on these issues too. A year on, more plans are emerging, including – potentially – the Scannebago, a mobile scanning unit to tour the US digitising and curating local history materials.
It’s a story we are watching with interest, as we move ahead with our strategy to support libraries in the UK with their digitisation of content.
Seven predictions….
Head of innovation Sarah Porter identified seven trends worth watching during 2012, focused on the unstoppable rise of technology to make it easier to access content and services and boost student experience.
One of her key predictions was the rise of smarter, wearable devices, and devices activated by voice, gesture and even brainwaves. The excitement generated later in the year by the announcement of the Google Glasses project and by the rich variety of new technologies at Bett 2013 show that she was on the money.
Cookie laws
With two months to go before the new Cookie Law came into force, Brian Kelly of the Innovation Support Centre at UKOLN offered practical pointers to help institutions get to grips with a subject that many were finding difficult. So difficult in fact that, at the 11th hour in late May, the Government revised its guidelines and agreed that a website user’s consent to the gathering and processing of personal information could be implied providing certain criteria were met.
But as stories continue to hit the headlines of organisations misusing or losing personal data, it’s worth revisiting Brian’s advice – and also take a look at some of our more recent podcasts on the subject, or see what Jisc Legal has to say about Cookies.
The open researcher
Rather appropriately, our article about researcher and lecturer Jennifer Jones and her use of open research and social media to give control of mass communications to ordinary people, scored a huge amount of hits. She explained how working openly and collaboratively has opened up huge new areas for exploration.
She planned to reclaim the 2012 Olympics (billed by many as the first social media Olympics) and to use Twitter to find hidden stories. Given that there were 150 million tweets about the Olympics over the 16-day event, mass communications control may have been achieved.
In the July 2012 edition of Inform, we indulged in a spot of future-gazing. Three stories struck a chord with lots of our readers:
Librarians – how to stay ahead of the game
Programme manager Ben Showers described how the smart use of data can help librarians to make informed decisions about library services and highlighted some of the tools now available to help.
His review of some of the innovative ways that colleges and universities are answering student queries such as, ‘What are my peers reading now?’ showed how it is now possible to tailor collections and provide better support for students.
Mobile delivery
Our article on a major Jisc Observatory report, Delivering web to mobile‘ predicted that the majority of web access would be via mobile by 2015 and offered some practical tips on how to optimise the delivery of services and content for mobile within that two to three year time window.
Report author Mark Power showed how doing so could transform the student experience. And if it all sounds too difficult, he also made it clear that there are lots of practical and relatively easy ways to make a start, using the skills that colleges and universities already have in-house.
We’re already a third of the way to that all-important date – if you haven’t made much headway with mobile delivery yet, perhaps it’s time to take a look at the original article.
Is technology at the heart of the student experience?
Former NUS President Aaron Porter is now a higher education consultant, with a particular interest in student experience.
His story explored the ways in which students are using technology, and how institutions can use it to enhance student experience and to boost student engagement, with particular reference to students who are studying part-time, or via distance learning. And, he says, there will be a need for ongoing strategic investment in technology, “…in a new era of rising student demands, institutions will need to stay ahead of the curve just to stand still and continue to fulfil the expectations of the next generation of students.”
In our last edition of 2012, we thought it was time to take a look at ways to make sure the technology you already have is working as hard as it can. Your attention focused particularly on…
Too busy to tweet
Jisc’s Hector Peebles, multimedia and community editor and David Kernohan, programme manager at Jisc recommended some techniques to help us all identify the gold nuggets and avoid the dead ends. If you want to know how to monitor tweets, bookmark interesting material so you can find it again easily and reduce the flow of worthless mail into your Inbox, this is the article for you.
There are also some top tips for assessing the value of material you discover online.
Reliving the Blitz
The unveiling of the University of Portsmouth’s Bomb Sight project, which Is available both online and as a free app, showed us once again how technology can bring a subject to life and make it accessible to anyone that wants it. The information contained within Bomb Sight was previously only available in the National Archives Reading Room.
This article shows us photos of bomb-damaged London, offers us eye witness testimony and shows us exactly where the bombs fell. Take a look at the map of modern-day London covered in red blobs to represent bombs and see how it brings history to life when you realise that the NatWest Tower, the FT building and the Fitness First gym behind Tower Hill would all have taken a direct hit.
Top seven predictions for the future of research
Sarah Porter, head of innovation and Torsten Reimer, programme manager at Jisc looked forward to 2013 and beyond to predict that digital technologies will offer valuable new ways to find and analyse information, especially as big data pushes researchers to develop new ways to analyse and manage large datasets. They also predict that mobile devices will allow citizen scientists and the wider public to get involved in research projects, leading to more diverse information and more impactful results.
And they warn, researchers will have to become more involved in data management processes. Read the article to find out more.
