Digitising Special Collections @ Queen’s- the JSTOR Project

• Preservation

• Teaching

• Research

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The usual challenges

• Rare material

• Fragility

• Range of titles

• Cataloguing/metadata

• Poor quality of text

• Finance 2

The core resource

• Irish Studies Collection in JSTOR

• Digital Library of core e-resources on Ireland

• Journals - full-text, interdisciplinary

• Monographs - full-text, interdisciplinary

• Manuscript images – music, travel writing

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Library Imperatives

• Preservation

• Access – enhanced, wider and remote

• Collaboration

• Integration of related materials elsewhere

• Exploiting IT

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Scholarly Imperatives

• Access to rare resources

• Resource discovery

• New, complex searching

• Serendipity

• Collaboration

• Enhanced research potential

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Project Background

Initial plans included• Creating an index• Digitisation of Hayes bibliographies

Manuscript sources for the history of Irish civilisationandSources for the history of Irish civilisation: articles in Irish periodicals

Hayes presented some problems – limited range of titles, complex structure, outdated, quality of print

• Improved technology and user expectations – full-text archive now necessary

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Audience Analysis

•Consultation patterns

•Statistical evidence

•Academic recommendation

•International researchers

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Content Selection - JSTOR

• JSTOR selection criteria

• Peer reviewed and others by academic recommendation

• Licence agreements signed

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Pressure Points

• Delays – licence preparation

• Delays – licence signing

• Delays - staffing

• Review

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Collaboration model

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JSTOR Project challenges

• In excess of 600,000 pages to be digitised

• High image quality required - post-printing annotations removed

• Detailed indexing & metadata requirements e.g. Journals require issue, article, editorial, book reviews, notices and announcements to be tagged, plus details relating to front and back matter

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Digitisation Challenges

• Quantity of research material available and research range in Humanities

• Future proofing (scan once) to create archival & working sets

• Old & rare materials, variable physical condition

• Faithful replica of originals – JSTOR strength12

Reliable, Successful, Sustainable

• Diaspora of Irish Studies

• Good business model with JSTOR

• Sustainable technical solution in place with JSTOR

• Significant body of material continuously updated

• Content chosen by academics

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The future

• Linking Queen’s Digital Collections and other e-resources

• Ireland Collection is infinitely extensible, Ireland Collection 2?

• Advancement of an Irish Studies research agenda through

international collaborations, providing access to research

resources and resource discovery tools

• Only our imaginations limit the possibilities for future development – collaboration is our strength

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Projects – a few considerations

• IPR

• Administration

• Staffing

• Content

• Finance

• Experience

• Flexibility

• Synergy

• TRUST

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Ireland Collection in JSTOR

JSTOR Ireland Collection

• Developed in collaboration with Queen's University Belfast

• Interdisciplinary collection of journals and other materials

• 75 journal titles, with previous titles included

Includes

• Journals with moving walls between 1 and 5 years

• Ceased journals from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries

• Over 200 monographs

• 2,500 manuscript pages16

Contact details for further information:

Deirdre Wildy

Head of Special Collections & Archives

Queen’s University Belfast

Email d.wildy@qub.ac.uk

Tel 00 44 - 28 9097 6218

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