21.101 JISC reviews its services in support of the Arts and Humanities

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 101.
       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: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:29:37 +0100
         From: James Cummings <James.Cummings_at_OUCS.OX.AC.UK>
         Subject: JISC reviews its services in support of the Arts
and Humanities

*Press release*

*Supporting research in the Arts and Humanities: JISC to review its
services*

13 June 2007. Following the decision by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities
Research Council) to cease funding the AHDS <http://www.ahds.ac.uk/>
(Arts and Humanities Data Service) from March 31st 2008, JISC has
decided that it is unable to fund the service alone and that therefore
its own funding of the service will, in its current form, cease on the
same date.

In its 11 years of existence the AHDS has established itself as a centre
of expertise and excellence in the creation, curation and preservation
of digital resources and has been responsible for a considerable
engagement of the Arts and Humanities community with ICT and a
significant increase in that community's knowledge and use of digital
resources. Its contribution to the development of technical standards,
its outreach to sectors beyond higher education, such as cultural
heritage, arts, museum and archive organisations and its support for the
development of a national e-infrastructure and repository system have
been among its many significant achievements.

In the light of these achievements and the consequent risks to the
continued development of the Arts ands Humanities community's engagement
with ICT, JISC is exploring with the AHDS, partner organisations and the
wider community alternative approaches to maintaining its strong support
for that community beyond March 2008.

JISC has a long history of support for Arts and Humanities research,
beginning with the founding of the AHDS in 1996 and continuing with its
collaboration with the AHRC over the ICT Methods Network
<http://www.methodsnetwork.ac.uk/>, the Arts and Humanities e-Science
initiative
<http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/apply/research/sfi/ahrcsi/ahrc-epsrc-jisc_arts_humanities_e-science_initiative.asp>
(with the AHRC and EPSRC), its contribution to the wider e-Science
Initiative <http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/default.htm>, and in
particular the Research Grants and Studentships Scheme
<http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/apply/research/sfi/ahrcsi/ahrc-epsrc-jisc_arts_humanities_e-science_initiative.asp>
and the Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre
<http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/> (AHESSC). JISC's Support of Research
committee has also funded the Aria project
<http://aria.dmu.ac.uk/whatIs.html> and a related Projects and Methods
database <http://ahds.ac.uk/about/projects/pmdb-extension/#details>
which have now been merged into an integrated resource, the ICT Guides
<http://ahds.ac.uk/ictguides/>.

At its meeting yesterday, the JISC Board reaffirmed its strong
commitment to continuing this engagement but in the light of wider
developments reluctantly acknowledged that the AHDS as currently
constituted would not be part of its service provision beyond next year.

Chair of JISC, Professor Sir Ron Cooke, paid tribute to the AHDS,
saying: "The AHDS has achieved a great deal in the last 11 years and we
would like to thank its staff for their skill, dedication and hard work
over these years. One of the AHDS's many achievements has been
establishing capacity and expertise within the Arts and Humanities
community. JISC will continue to support that community in its
engagement with ICT in order to meet the many challenges of the future."

For further information, please contact Philip Pothen on 020 3006 6049,
(m) 07887 564 006 or p.pothen_at_jisc.ac.uk <mailto:p.pothen_at_jisc.ac.uk>

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anything in this message which does not clearly relate to the official
work of the sender's organisation shall be understood as neither given
nor endorsed by that organisation.

-- 
Dr James Cummings, Oxford Text Archive, University of Oxford
James dot Cummings at oucs dot ox dot ac dot uk