JISC ITT: Research Projects: "The Role of Metadata in the Discovery, Selection and Acquisition of e-Books"

Here’s news of a research project that might me be of interest to you and/or your colleagues. One thing is for sure, both timely and interesting.

From a JISC Announcement (Full-Text):

The JISC, working closely with the Publishers and Library/Learning Solutions (PALS) Metadata and Interoperability Group invites tenders to conduct a study to investigate the main drivers for patron-driven acquisition of e-books, and the implications for acquiring reliable and useful metadata.

The primary aim of the study is to:

• Understand the motivations for patron’s  recommending or requesting the purchase of an e-book.

Additional aims include:

• Identification of the role metadata plays in the discovery, selection and acquisition process when it is primarily driven by the patron.
• Understanding the role metadata plays in the selection process of the patron, what might be termed ‘selection assisting metadata’.
• Understanding patron discovery behaviour (i.e. Google or Amazon).
• Availability of metadata.
• Exploring the problems such an approach has for libraries (for example, e-books purchased without library knowledge).
• Developing a number of recommendations for librarians, intermediaries and publishers

Total funding of up to £40,000 (including VAT, travel and subsistence) is available for this project.

The deadline for proposals is 12 noon UK time on Thursday 5 May 2011.

The successful bidder will be expected to start work on or around Tuesday 14 June 2011.

The deadline for submission of final deliverables is 13 September 2011.

Direct to Complete Announcement

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Funding, Libraries, News, Publishing, Resources