JISC

The new issue of JISC inform is published this week and in an exclusive interview, Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of Kings College London and President of Universities UK, says that universities are likely to feel the effects of an economic downturn in the near future. However he believes, by playing to its strengths and with continued investment, the sector will emerge healthy and vigorous.

New research commissioned by JISC and carried out by Ipsos MORI suggests that students are starting to mix their social networking sites with their academic studies and inviting tutors and lecturers into their virtual space. Looking at how students use technology to learn, network and communicate provides useful insight into the future of ICT provision. Rebecca O'Brien reports on how students' expectations of technology could see less textbooks and more Facebook.

In a recent Guardian supplement, JISC's Libraries of the Future campaign highlighted the achievements of UK academic libraries, the innovative integration of ICT into services and explored future challenges. Two of the articles in the supplement, focusing on licensing and key resources, have been reproduced in this issue of Inform.

The JISC service TechDis is working closely with publishers to make a significant difference to the support received by disabled students and staff.  The new initiative shows how technology can bridge divides within our institutions, in both practical and far-reaching ways, to ensure that all students and staff have fair and equal access to the resources they need. The web only JISC inform plus+ caries podcast interviews with Sal Cooke the Director of TechDis, Sue McKnight from Nottingham Trent University and Sue Smith and Isabel Arreola from Leeds Metropolitan University, in which they speak in  greater detail about recent developments that are bringing equal access to all.

Archaeologists digging at the site of the Silchester Roman town in Hampshire this summer are discarding pen and paper in favour of digital pens and digital memo pads to record the details of their finds. They are participating in the JISC-funded Virtual Environments for Research in Archaeology (VERA) project to develop digital technologies that speed up some of the processes involved in archaeological research and enable widely-dispersed archaeologists to collaborate over interpretation of the new finds.

inform plus+ also provides a link to podcast interviews with Professor Rick Trainor, Richard Everett of Oaklands College and Members of the TASI team who discuss how their technical workshops provide hands on digital training.
Print copies of Inform are currently being circulated to colleges and universities.

For further information, please go to: inform 22