21.388 Irish Studies Online project update

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 388.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:07:13 +0000
         From: Deirdre Wildy <D.Wildy_at_qub.ac.uk>
         Subject: Irish Studies Online Queen's JSTOR Project Update

Apologies for cross-posting.

Update Winter 2007

In the months since the last update the project has progressed at a
steady pace. Staff have been appointed, licences prepared and
circulated, digitisation is on-going and presentations have been
delivered at a range of key conferences.

Staffing
Three Research Assistants have been appointed to prepare publication
histories and indexing guidelines for every journal selected for
inclusion in the JSTOR Irish Studies Collection. A Production
Librarian from JSTOR came to Belfast in September to train the
Research Assistants so that all titles in this new collection have
the same rigorous metadata standards applied as other JSTOR
collections. This was an intense period for all concerned as it is
necessary for the Research Assistants to reach JSTOR's standard of
excellence every time they submit their work to JSTOR, there is no
gradual development of excellence over time, the gold standard must
always be achieved. The Irish journal titles are complex to analyse,
dual language, varying scripts and organisation are just some of the
elements which present challenges to JSTOR's experienced staff
responsible for answering queries presented by the Research
Assistants based at Queen's in Belfast.

Licences
Licence agreements between JSTOR and participating publishers were
prepared and circulated in early autumn by JSTOR to those publishers
who expressed an interest in having their journal archived in the
Irish Studies Collection. This project was made possible by funding
from the JISC, the finance is limited and the project must be
completed and the Irish Studies Collection ready for release in March
2009. There is a very narrow window of opportunity to have licences
circulated, discussed and signed to meet very tight production
deadlines. If a journal is to participate in the Irish Studies
Collection it is important that a signed licence is returned to JSTOR
as soon as possible otherwise an alternative title needs to be selected.

Phase I release Summer 2008
Work can't begin on a journal title until a licence has been signed
and delivered to JSTOR. Digitisation, post-processing, OCRing and
preparation of indexing guidelines must be completed in Belfast
before JSTOR can complete the process with the application of
metadata. To date almost 40 titles have been digitised and
post-processed by the Centre for Data Digitisation & Analysis at
Queen's. It is important that schedules are completed efficiently in
order to facilitate all elements of the production process and
release of the complete project on time. We hope to release the first
phase of journal titles in Summer 2008 with access to a mix of legacy
and in copyright titles.

Digitisation of monographs and manuscripts for inclusion in the Irish
Studies Collection will begin in Spring 2008 when digitisation of the
journals is complete.

Feedback
Presentations have been delivered in Ireland, UK and USA, feedback
indicates that there is tremendous interest in this
project. Academics, researchers and students are looking forward to
access to the Irish Studies Collection and publishers to increased
international exposure for their journals.

If you would like more information on any of the issues commented
upon in this update please don't hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
Deirdre

Deirdre Wildy
Senior Subject Librarian (Arts & Humanities)
Main Library
Queen's University of Belfast
University Square
BELFAST
BT7 1LS

Email: d.wildy_at_qub.ac.uk

Tel: 0044 (0) 28 9097 3721 / 3607
Fax: 0044 (0) 28 9032 3340
Received on Tue Dec 04 2007 - 03:37:31 EST