A new phase for UKOLN

August 2nd, 2013 by Alex Ball

Following the closure of the Jisc Innovation Support Centre on 31 July 2013, UKOLN has entered a new phase. As part of this, the UKOLN Web site is being archived, meaning that its contents will be available long into the future but will no longer be updated.

The project-based activities of UKOLN continue under the name UKOLN Informatics, for which a new web presence is being prepared. More information is available in a statement from Director Liz Lyon on the UKOLN Web site.

IJDC 8(1): Feature on New Issue’s Content

June 24th, 2013 by lisrw

UKOLN has recently published Volume 8, Issue 1 (2013) of the International Journal of Digital Curation on behalf of the Digital Curation Centre. It contains the usual mix of peer-reviewed papers and general articles; 17 derive from papers presented at the 2013 International Digital Curation Conference, while four were new contributions received by the Journal through general submission. A UKOLN news feature is now available to give readers a rapid overview of the papers and articles included.

The news feature is obtainable from the UKOLN Web site.

UKOLN Research Awarded Best Paper at ELPUB 2013

June 24th, 2013 by Emma Tonkin

A paper authored by Emma Tonkin,  Stephanie Taylor and Greg Tourte entitled ‘Cover Sheets Considered Harmful‘  was granted the Best Paper award at the 17th International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ELPUB 2013). Based on work completed alongside the Jisc-funded FixRep Project, this paper explores the motivations and facts underlying the use of repository tools to alter items following their deposit in an institutional repository.

International Journal of Digital Curation, Volume 8, Issue 1 Published

June 21st, 2013 by lisrw

The International Journal of Digital Curation, Volume 8, Issue 1 was recently published by UKOLN on behalf of the Digital Curation Centre.  It contains the usual mix of peer-reviewed papers and general articles; seventeen derive from papers presented at the 2013 International Digital Curation Conference, while four were new contributions received by the Journal through general submission.

IDCC14: Save the Date

June 5th, 2013 by lisrw

The 9th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC14) will be held the week beginning Monday 24 February 2014 at the Mission Bay Conference Centre at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). The Conference theme will be “Commodity, catalyst or change-agent? Data-driven transformations in research, education, business and society.”

This year the IDCC is bringing a particular focus on how data are changing the world around us,  recognising that the growing volume and complexity of data provides institutions, businesses and communities with a range of exciting opportunities and challenges. The Conference will explore different drivers, the expanding portfolio of tools and data services as well as the diverse skills which are essential for organisations to manage, use and benefit from many valuable data assets. The programme will reflect cultural, technical and economic perspectives and will illustrate the progress made in this arena in recent months.

There will be a programme of workshops on Monday 24 and Thursday 27 February 2014. The main conference programme will run from Tuesday 25 – Wednesday 26 February 2014.

IDCC14 will be organised by the Digital Curation Centre UK in partnership with the University of California Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).

The Call for Papers and submission details will be announced later this month.

Data Publishing: Challenges for HEIs and Libraries

May 23rd, 2013 by lisrw

Slides are now available from the presentation given by Liz Lyon entitled Data Publishing: Challenges for HEIs and Libraries at the Symposium “The Now and Future of Data Publishing” held at St. Anne’s College, Oxford on 22 May 2013.  Liz’ presentation was a contribution under the panel “Citation, Impact, Metrics”. The Symposium was organised by the Jisc Managing Research Data Programme in conjunction with a range of partners including BioSharing, DataONE, Dryad, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, Wiley-Blackwell, and others.

Future Directions of Citizen Science

May 9th, 2013 by lisrw

UKOLN Events in partnership with e-Research South is organising a free full-day event looking at the work of citizen science projects and how to develop them successfully in the future. The Workshop on the Future Directions of Citizen Science will take place on Wednesday 29 May 2013 at the Royal Society, London.

Details of the Workshop Programme and how to book one’s free place are available from the UKOLN Web site.

IWMW 2013: Open for Bookings

April 16th, 2013 by Brian Kelly

Bookings are now open for the IWMW 2013 event.  This is the 17th in the series of Institutional Web Management Workshops. This year’s event will be held at the University of Bath over 26-28 June.

A blog post provides a summary of the plenary talks to be given at the event on a day-by-day basis, while a UKOLN news feature supplies an overview of the IWMW 2013 speakers.

Note that, in addition to the 13 plenary talks, there are 9 parallel sessions on Day One and 8 on Day Two, each planned for 90 minutes. On offer is a variety of group discussions, exercises and practical sessions. Participants will need to consult the programme to select their preferred parallel session for each day before beginning their booking.

 

Enhancing Data Sharing and Interoperability

March 7th, 2013 by lisrw

The Community Capability Model (CCM) team at UKOLN and Microsoft Research has recently submitted its Working Group Case Statement (in draft form) to the Research Data Alliance and it is now available from the Research Data Alliance Forum pages.

The Statement explains the CCM Working Group Charter, and in the subsequent Value Proposition details the beneficiaries together with the varied impacts and outcomes of the Working Group. It goes on to describe how the WG will engage with existing work and lists final deliverables and milestones by way of greater detail and includes its Adoption Plan. You are invited to comment on the Case Statement on the Forum and it will be presented at the forthcoming RDA Launch in Gothenberg later this month.

Developing Data Informatics Capability in Libraries at LIBER 2013

March 6th, 2013 by lisrw

Liz Lyon, Director of UKOLN and Associate Director, DCC will give a presentation entitled Roadmaps, Roles and Re-engineering: Developing Data Informatics Capability in Libraries at the LIBER 2013  Conference to be held in Munich over 26 – 29 June.

In this presentation, Liz will reflect on the strategic and operational approaches to developing sustainable research data management services within institutions. Her perspective will draw on the work of the UK Digital Curation Centre in supporting universities addressing the data challenge through the provision of tools, guides and training resources. She will also share experience and findings from the Research360 Project and the innovative Immersive Informatics training programme at the University of Bath. Throughout the talk, the drivers, barriers and opportunities for libraries will be highlighted, unpacked and critically assessed, with a particular focus on requirements for new data scientist roles and associated informatics skills, to support multi-disciplinary data-intensive research and open science.