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Digital Resources for the Eighteenth

CenturyThe Role of JISC

(Joint Information Systems Committee)

Alastair DunningJISC Digitisation Programme Manager, a.dunning AT jisc.ac.uk, 0203 006 6065

The British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Conference, 7th

January 2009

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What JISC does in general

1. Provides Technical Infrastructure

2. Runs services, provides data, offers advice

3. Funds innovative projects

Provides rapid email and Internet access

Gives answers to ICT questions and needs either via computers or humans

Allows you to explore new ideas

Supported via HEFCE and other funding councils with top-sliced funding.

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JISC Collections Negotiates with

publishers to get cheaper access to their resources Eg. ECCO, Burney

Newspapers Consults library

community to get feedback

If you want access to a resource, and don’t have it – bug your librarian

Perfume Advert, William Roberts, perfumer, at the Civet Cat, 1742. All images from John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera.

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JISC Digitisation Provides funding to HE sector

(and sometimes beyond) to digitise and enhance key resources

52 projects funded since 2004, £24m

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/digitisation Some resources delivered

freely; others at cost in conjunction with publishers

Perruquier barbier, perruques , date unknown

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JISC Digitisation

18th-Century Parliamentary Papers (Southampton University , ProQuest)

British Newspapers (British Library, Cengage Gale)

John Johnson Collection (Oxford University, Pro Quest)

Marandet Plays (Warwick University)*

Enlightening Science: Newton Project (Sussex University)*

St Kitts-Nevis Digital Archaeology (Southampton University, Thomas Jefferson Foundation)*

Welsh Ballads (Cardiff University)*

* - Online Autumn 2009

A perspective view of the Grand Walk in Vauxhall Gardens, and the orchestra ,1765

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Key Issues – Finding Stuff

Collections dispersed on Internet – resources difficult to find, little cross-searching capability, redundant searches

Armadillo project (Sheffield. Uni.) attempted to bring 18th-century content together

Is it worth the technical hassle to bring all the dispersed content together?

The Hay Market, date unknown

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Key Issues – Special Collections What lies uncatalogued and

unavailable in UK libraries and archives?

How do we prioritise digitisation? Complete runs? Condition of material?

Potential research impact? Commercial value? Use in teaching? Space?

DiscMap project at University of Strathclyde undertaking research

Or should we improve existing resources?

A pair of polished gentlemen, James Gillray, 1801

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Key Issues – Impact (I) Many news sources of evidence becoming available

Usual slow drip of sources becomes a deluge Possible changes in research

Retiring scholars see their work cast aside – or maybe reaffirmed?

Doctoral students have a whole new landscape to explore Previously aesthetic readings become more historicist Need to refine questions because of greater amount of evidence Will there be a increased need for sampling? Will macro-history

become easier? Study of language emphasised; linguistic interpretations to the

fore? Opening entire corpora up for large-scale analysis

Add all these changes together, and what will happen?

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Key Issues – Impact (II) How can this change be

measured? How is the value of 18th-century

content compared to other epochs?

Digitised Resources Impact Study – Oxford University

Will give clues to what material to digitise in future How are images used? Better to digitise specialist

collections in depth or broad collections more superficially

Barber, date unknown