A Report From JISC: “Improving Discoverability of Digitised Collections: Above-Campus and National Solutions”

The following report (full text below) was made available online today by JISC (a UK-based organization focusing on content, digitization, info tech, research, etc.).
David Prosser’s (from RLUK) blog post, “Action on discoverability” provides some background.

Research carried out among the UK’s academic community during 2012 found that 40% of researchers kicked off their project with a trawl through the internet for material, while only 2% preferred to make a visit to a physical library space. That’s a huge change in a relatively short period, fuelled by the sheer richness of the digital content that is now potentially available online.
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It’s a priority for us to make sure that the investment in digitisation of resources made over the last decade brings real returns and enriches research, teaching and learning. The project has been a way for us all to scope out the problems that hinder discoverability of digital assets and to devise solutions that will both support discovery of existing content and help to ensure that resources digitised in future have built-in discoverability.
They [Researchers] found that people search for digital resources in ways not fully understood by those charged with looking after resources. We need to put ourselves in the shoes of researchers and students, to develop a deeper understanding of the ways that they think, work and interact with digitised materials.

Read David Prosser’s Complete Blog Post

Full Text Report

Title

Improving discoverability of digitised collections: above-campus and national solutions

Authors

David Kay and Owen Stephens

Source

JISC
Direct to Full Text Report

Additional Materials

Blog Post: Spotlight on the digital – final recommendations and outputs (via JISC Digitisation and Content Programme)
Links to online guide to make your digital resources easier to discover, technical specifications for tools, and more.
See Also:  New Case Study: “Digital Collections as Research Infrastructure”
New from EDUCAUSE.

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Digital Preservation, Libraries