Stepping Away from the Silos

For over twenty years, digitisation has been a core element of the modern information landscape. The digital lifecycle is now well defined, and standards and good practice have been developed for most of its key stages. There remains, however, a widespread lack of coordination of digitisation initiatives, both within and across different sectors, and there are disparate approaches to selection criteria. The result is 'silos' of digitised content. Stepping away from the Silos examines the strategic context in the UK since the 1990s and its effect on collaboration and coordination of exemplar digitisation initiatives in higher education and related sectors. It identifies the principal criteria for content selection that are common to the international literature in this field. The outputs of the exemplar projects are examined in relation to these criteria. A range of common practices and patterns in content selection appears to have developed over time, forming a de facto strategy from which several areas of critical mass have emerged. The book discusses the potential to improve strategic collaboration and coordinated selection by building on such a platform, and considers planning options in the context of work on national digitisation strategies in the UK and internationally. - Summarises the rise of publicly funded digitisation in the UK from the 1990s to date and identifies the need to improve coordination and content selection criteria - Reviews the role of digitisation in government and organisational strategies from the 1990s to the present day - Examines the strategic position of collaboration within and across different organisations - Identifies common selection criteria and outlines the coverage of exemplar projects  - Discusses the apparent emergence of a de facto selection strategy and the potential for national strategic planning of digitised content based on existing outputs and improved collaboration

Margaret Coutts was University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds from 2005 until her retirement in 2010. Prior to that she worked at the universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Kent. Her previous posts included responsibility for both library and IT provision as Director of Information Services, and roles in senior management covering the full range of library services for all principal academic disciplines. Her wide range of professional activities have included serving on the Boards of RLUK and SCONUL, and on several leading JISC committees. Her current commitments include membership of the Board of Governors of Leeds Trinity University College; Chair of the JISC Content Advisory Group; and Chair of the Jorum Steering Group.