Digital Archival Collections (DAC) publishers’ collaboration programme

Tender description

Jisc has been exploring new collaborative business models to support sustainable digitisation of collections and primary source material. We refer to these, in its broadest sense, as Digital Archival Collections (DACs), comprising of a range of content types such as printed texts, manuscripts, illustrations, photographs, maps, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence, ephemera and audio-visual materials. The advent of the global pandemic has accelerated the “digital shift” towards new paradigms for research and blended and online learning. While traditionally aimed at researchers, DACs are set to play an even more crucial role in delivering the curriculum and providing students with access to a wide range of material to simulate academic progress. However, UK academic libraries are unable to set aside large budgets for digitisation of their institutional special or archival collections, or lack the capacity to engage in such large and complex projects. At the same time, pressure on acquisition budgets means they find it challenging to justify purchasing expensive commercial digital primary source archives, especially if perceived as serving primarily narrower research purposes. In addition, UK Higher Education (HE) libraries have expressed a desire to be more involved in publishers’ strategic decisions on their developing publishing programmes and to ensure digitised content reflects the requirements of the UK academic community. Jisc is seeking to support its members in overcoming some of these challenges.