Circular 2/94: Implementation of IT Recommendations

2. At its February meeting, Jisc agreed that an expert group should be set up, chaired by Ms Lynne Brindley, Librarian and Director of Information Services at the London School of Economics.  The membership and terms of reference of this group were subsequently agreed by Jisc at its April meeting and are annexed to this circular, together with a list of the main recommendations from the report.  It is likely that a co-ordinator will be appointed to liaise with the community and related initiatives.

3. Over the next few months, this group will be meeting regularly to draw up an implementation framework for the initiative.  It is intended that a Programme Director be appointed as soon as possible to take a high profile role in promoting and directing the initiative.  An advertisement will be issued shortly both in the main education publications and in electronic form via the NISS Bulletin Board.

4. Regular progress reports will be issued as the initiative progresses.  It is intended that a letter outlining the detailed framework and guidelines for the initiative will be issued in July/August 1994.

Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology (FIGIT) - Terms of Reference

1. The Higher Education Funding Councils have agreed to allocate funding of 4.75 million during the 1994/95 Academic Year to proceed with the IT recommendations as set out in Chapter Seven of the Report of their Joint Review of Libraries (the "Follett" report), and have asked the Joint Information Systems Committee to take forward the resulting initiative.  Funding for subsequent years will be considered by the Funding Councils as part of the annual review of the Jisc budget.2. At its February meeting, Jisc agreed that an expert group should be set up, chaired by Ms Lynne Brindley, Librarian and Director of Information Services at the London School of Economics.  The membership and terms of reference of this group were subsequently agreed by Jisc at its April meeting and are annexed to this circular, together with a list of the main recommendations from the report.  It is likely that a co-ordinator will be appointed to liaise with the community and related initiatives.3. Over the next few months, this group will be meeting regularly to draw up an implementation framework for the initiative.  It is intended that a Programme Director be appointed as soon as possible to take a high profile role in promoting and directing the initiative.  An advertisement will be issued shortly both in the main education publications and in electronic form via the NISS Bulletin Board.4. Regular progress reports will be issued as the initiative progresses.  It is intended that a letter outlining the detailed framework and guidelines for the initiative will be issued in July/August 1994.

Aims

The Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology of the Jisc aims to ensure the cost effective implementation of the IT recommendations of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review through a coherent Libraries Initiative. It will encourage widespread
involvement of higher education institutions and other agencies, both within and outwith the sector, in order to exploit and deliver IT products and services to enhance the quality of information services in support of teaching, learning and research.  It is envisaged that the Sub Committee will be in existence only for the three year implementation period.

Objectives

The objectives of the Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology are as follows:

• Development of Programme and Projects
• to ensure that IT developments are linked and integrated with the wider aims and implementation of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review
• to develop a coherent programme of research and development work, and associated activities, taking into account relevant international developments,  to ensure full implementation of the recommendations
• to promote the programme and ensure effective communication with interested parties
• to evaluate project proposals 
• to allocate funds to projects, within the financial delegation of the group, and to advise the Jisc on resource allocations above this level
• to devise and oversee mechanisms for the effective financial control and management of the programme
• to develop operational services from pilot projects as appropriate, and ensure there is adequate management provision within the Jisc structure  
• Relationship with Jisc, the Funding Councils and other committees
• to provide continuing advice to the Jisc and the Funding Councils on the resource implications associated with the implementation of the IT recommendations of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review:
• to advise the Jisc on policy issues on libraries and related provision associated with the work of the Sub Committee
• to liaise closely with other Jisc Sub Committees on the development and implications of projects
• Relationship with Institutions
• to continue to consult with higher education institutions over their requirements and include, where appropriate institutional visits.

Extract from "Joint Funding Councils' Review Group: Report"

Chapter 8:  Summary of Specific Recommendations Information Technology

Copyright

350. The funding councils should sponsor a pilot initiative between a small number of institutions and a similar number of publishing houses to demonstrate in practical terms how material can be handled, stored, and distributed electronically while protecting the legitimate copyright interests of publishers and authors
(paragraph 257).

Networking

352. Each institution should review its local area network as part of its overall information strategy, to ensure it is of a standard where it can make full use of the facilities offered by JANET and its successors.  To encourage this, the funding councils, through the Jisc, should support a study to assess the cost to institutions of implementing this proposal (paragraph 261).

353. DENI should also give early consideration to the extension of SuperJANET to Northern Ireland (paragraph 261).

354. The funding councils (through the Jisc) and DENI should collaborate in securing access, at the most advantageous tariffs, to advanced data and telecommunication networks (including SuperJANET and Internet) for the HE sector as a whole (paragraph 262).

Navigational Tools

355. The funding councils should provide 1 million over two years through the Jisc to encourage the development of networking navigation tools in the UK and the growth of local subject based tools and information servers (paragraph 265).

Standards

356. The Jisc should monitor the development of standards and make available financial support if this is necessary to take forward developments of benefit to the UK
(paragraph 271).

Electronic Documents, Journals and Books

356. 1 million a year over three years should be provided by the councils to fund a number of electronic document delivery projects (paragraph 277).

358. The funding councils should make available 0.5 million over three years to support projects to demonstrate the value of digitising books and journals out of copyright.  Depending on the outcome, a further 0.5 million should be made available to distribute the digitised products (paragraph 279).

359. The councils should provide 2 million over three years to support a series of projects to elevate the status and acceptability of electronic journals and to prepare the way for multi-media electronic journals which will fully utilise the potential of SuperJANET (paragraph 288).

360. The funding councils should make clear that refereed articles published electronically will be accepted in the next Research Assessment Exercise on the same basis as those appearing in printed journals (paragraph 289).

361. 1 million per year for three years should be made available by the funding councils to promote the creation of digitised texts that can be customised to individual requirements.  This would involve demonstrator projects mounted at one or more host universities, and a system to support copyright permissions and payments (paragraph 294).

Databases, Datasets and Catalogues

362. The councils should provide funding in 1994-95 to enable the Jisc to undertake a feasibility study of the British Academy's recent proposal that an Arts and Humanities datacentre should be established (paragraph 299).

363. The funding councils should provide 0.5 million a year over three years through the Jisc to fund the continued development of the CURL database, its conversion to an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) and its operation as a national public access catalogue service (paragraph 301).

364. The funding councils should commission a study from UKOLN to establish whether a national retrospective
catalogue conversion programme is justified and to explore the implications of much wider access both to records and to actual collections so converted.  This study should be monitored by a group of representatives from the academic community (paragraphs 303-4).

365. Demonstrator projects to illustrate the advantages of integrated bibliographic databases should be funded by the Jisc (paragraph 144).

Awareness and Training

366. A national networked training programme for librarians and information scientists working in academic libraries should be established by the councils with funding of 1 million a year over three years (paragraph 308).

Library Management Systems

367. The councils should ask the Jisc to fund a study to explore the development of a Management Information System specification, and to encourage strategic thinking about the integration of the library into the overall information management of an institution (paragraphs 319 and 320).

368. Any further developments in teaching and learning methods based on the CTI or TLTP programmes should give explicit attention to the interaction between IT based learning materials and the library (paragraph 318).