Wellcome Library strengthens Jisc-led Strategic Content Alliance
Academic research receives a boost this week as the Jisc-led Strategic Content Alliance announces the Wellcome Library joins its board.
The Wellcome Library is one of the world's major resources for the study of medical history and provides access to a growing collection of contemporary biomedical information resources relating to consumer health, popular science, biomedical ethics and the public understanding of science.
Stuart Dempster, project director of the Jisc-led Strategic Content Alliance says: “The expertise and knowledge from the Wellcome Library will strengthen our work in bringing publicly funded content online. The IPR issues around the sensitive nature of scientific and medical images which the Wellcome Library manages will boost our ability to provide best practice advice and guidance for UK colleges and universities.”
Among its current digital projects, the Wellcome Library is curating an online audio-archive of 2,400 interviews with the ‘plinthers’ involved in Anthony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ art project, and undertaking a joint Jisc-funded project with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt to provide access to the Wellcome’s unique collection of Arabic manuscripts. In August 2010 the Wellcome Library launched a £3.9m project to digitize collections relating to the history of modern genetics, including Francis Crick’s original sketches of the DNA double helix.
Simon Chaplin, head of the Wellcome Library says: “Being part of the Alliance will allow us to share expertise and resources with other key public-sector content providers. We are looking forward to working with Jisc and fellow members of the Alliance to develop innovative partnerships and reduce the barriers that currently inhibit access, use and re-use of digital content.”
The Alliance comprises of organisations across the public sector, including the British Library, the BBC, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and The Wellcome Library.
Find out more about the Jisc-led Strategic Content Alliance
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.
About the Wellcome Library
The Wellcome Library is based on the collections created by the Trust’s founder, Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853-1936). The Wellcome Library holds over a million books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day. The Library is responsible for Wellcome Images, one of the world’s largest publicly-accessible medical image collections, and Wellcome Film, a partnership with Jisc Collections to make over 450 medical films freely available online.