The JISC Collections Summer Roadshows are taking place at Cardiff University and other venues over the summer. The events are aimed at librarians in the JISC Collections member institutions and are open to both HE and FE.
The Cardiff roadshow is on 7 June.
Further details including an outline programme and a form to register your interest, are available on the JISC Collections website http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/News/JISC-Collections-2012-HE-Summer-Roadshows/
If you are interested in what Open Source software solutions are available to libraries, how they work, and the issues and strategies around their use, then this free event in Edinburgh on the 25th and 26th January may be of interest.
’Open Edge’ is a two day event on open source software for libraries being run in collaboration with JISC and SCONUL. The first day is ’Haggis and Mash’, is a ‘Mashed Library event’ and will take a very hands-on approach, while the second day covers broader issues, in particular how capacity might be built to enable open source solutions to flourish in HE and FE Libraries.
You can attend one or both days – full details of the programme are available at http://www.mashedlibrary.com/wiki/index.php?title=Haggis_and_Mash and registration is now open at http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/1114/
Facebook photo albums, online clips and video briefings for international students are among examples of best practice highlighted in a new report aimed at helping universities and colleges better inform their first-years about life at university.
As part of the JISC-funded Student Expectations of University project, aimed at enhancing applicants’ understanding of university experiences, the 1994 Group have produced this report to illustrate innovative and excellent practice in the areas of: communicating with prospective students; providing information, advice and guidance (IAG) to applicants; and managing student expectations of university.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/11/expectations.aspx
News release: 22 April 2010
Due to the current financial climate and pressures on funding, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) has been reviewing priorities for uncommitted funding for the remainder of 2010-11.
Consequently HEFCW will be withdrawing from JISC any unallocated capital funding for 2010-11. Whilst HEFCW will honour any existing commitments this decision means that Welsh universities will now not be eligible to lead new capital funded innovation projects.
There are currently two calls affected by this decision:
Grant 05/10: Flexible service delivery programme: Call for projects
Grant 14/09: Managing Research Data Programme
If you have questions about whether a call that you are working on at the moment is affected by this announcement, please email funding@jisc.ac.uk
Another useful post from Lis Parcell. If you are in HE and interested in the use of technology for inclusion, then you’ve probably heard of the HEAT (“HE Assistive Technology”) scheme which funded a massive range of projects in universities across the UK. JISC Techdis, which managed the projects, have upgraded the information available about the projects on their website.
More from: http://blogs.rsc-wales.ac.uk/he/2009/12/14/he-assistive-technology-update/
A reminder that JISC Techdis have a dedicated page for HE information here. And if you would like to order or download JISC Techdis publications for staff development events or meetings there are a number of guides specifically for HE here.
An interesting blog post from Lis Parcell, who attended the event to launch the new free online toolkit from JISC InfoNet – Embedding Business and Community Engagement
It’s designed to help Higher and Further Education institutions work more effectively on all aspects of partnership management. It aims to do this by enabling staff to focus on the internal communications needed to embed ‘BCE’, in order that such activity is supported by core institutional systems rather than being a peripheral activity. The University of Glamorgan ran one of the pilot projects.
http://blogs.rsc-wales.ac.uk/he/2009/12/14/engaging-business-and-the-community-new-resource/
JISC regularly reviews the services that it funds, to ensure they deliver value for money, quality products and to test their sustainability for the future. A services portfolio review takes place annually and in May 2009 the future funding of JISC services, including Intute, was considered in order to identify the funding priorities for the academic year 2010/11. As a result it has now been decided that funding to the Intute service will cease in its current form from 1 August 2010.
JISC and Intute are considering whether limited aspects of the current content could be sustained through different routes perhaps using social networking channels.
For further information on future arrangements please visit: www.intute.ac.uk
A new organisation called JISC Advance launches this week which will bring together eight established JISC services as part of JISC’s ongoing strategy to deliver world-class support to colleges and universities.
Dr Malcolm Read, JISC Executive Secretary, said: “JISC Advance brings together a team of experienced professionals, many of whom we have worked with for many years. We aim to join these services more closely together so that their combined weight will enhance the services provided by JISC Advance to people working within universities and colleges on a whole range of issues.”
The organisation will be led by new managing director Guy Lambert and will co-ordinate JISC Digital Media, JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISCMail, JISC Netskills, JISC Procureweb, JISC TechDis and the JISC Regional Support Centre UK by centralising funding and business development opportunties.
Guy, working with the JISC Advance team of service directors, will be talking to sector-wide organisations as well as individual universities and colleges to better understand their priorities and needs.
If you’re already using tools like Twitter, YouTube and Google Apps, Netskills would like to hear about your experiences with them and would value any advice you have for new users.
Netskills is writing a series of JISC guides to emergent web technologies for researchers, teachers and administrators. These guides are being written for new users, perhaps considering using web 2.0 tools for the first time.
To help make this guide as relevant to the community as possible, please share your thoughts via this form: http://twurl.cc/ebb
JISC’s annual review is now online. It documents a year of activity and accomplishment in JISC’s key spheres of interest. Including podcast interviews with outgoing Chair Sir Ron Cooke and JISC Executive Secretary Dr Malcolm Read, it also features an image gallery and a Year in View providing highlights of JISC’s work during the 2007-2008 academic year.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/aboutus/annualreview/2008.aspx
