Stepping away from the silos: strategic collaboration in digitisation

Digital content is well established as a core element of the information environment, and its role is becoming ever more central for all categories of user. It is widely recognised that, while the amount of content digitised since the 1990s is substantial, its impact has been suboptimal because of limited co-ordination at the strategic level. This book will examine the current environment for creation of publicly funded digital content, and the longstanding issues affecting strategic collaboration in two major aspects of this field: the selection of content for digitisation, and its effective dissemination. The book will focus on publicly funded digital content developed over the last 15-20 years. Specifically, it will concentrate on the extensive range of outputs which fall outside the categories of commercial publications, research publications and research data. These groupings will be excluded, other than as necessary context, because they are already the subject of significant studies both past and present. The book will cover, primarily, activity in UK Higher Education, whilst setting this work in the wider context of major initiatives by other publicly funded bodies in the UK and at international level. It will examine the extent to which good practice and standards for collaboration have already emerged from the 1990s onwards. It will identify political, financial and cultural issues that currently restrict full strategic collaboration, and consequently undermine effective provision of relevant and accessible digital content. It will conclude by outlining the prospects for UK Higher Education to achieve more effective strategic collaboration in the short and long term, both within and beyond sector.

• concentrates on the value and role of collaboration in digital content creations, independent of particular organisations or digitisation programmes
• explore strategic aspects of collaboration rather than implementation and operational issue
• studies the most amorphous area of digital creation
• identify clearly current good practice and standards
• highlight issues which could be resolved in the immediate or longer term