Advisory Board
Meeting
22 March 2013
@ JISC Collections
Agenda:
11.00
11.10
11.25
11.40
12.40
13.00
13.30
14.15
14.40
14.50
Welcome & notes of last meeting
Budget Update
Review of Technology & supplier selection
process
Alternative/Historical Spellings
User survey Results
Lunch
Platform Update and Development Log
includes discussion around PDF / Print
Book and Pages display
Google Books project update
Updates –MARC records and OCR
AOB
Welcome and Introductions
In attendance:
 Joanna Ball, Research Liaison Manager, University of Sussex
 Alistair Baron, Lancaster University
 Stan Booth, University of Winchester
 Laurel Brake, Professor Emerita of Literature and Print Culture,
Birkbeck, University of London
 Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas Royal
Holloway, University of London
 Keith Cole, Mimas
 Adrian Edwards, Lead Curator, Printed Historical Sources, The British
Library
 Gabriel Egan, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, De Montford
University(Chair)
Welcome and Introductions
In attendance:
 Scott Gibbens, Service Representative, JISC Collections
 Jonathan Gibson, Academic co-ordinator, HEA English Subject Centre,
Royal Holloway, University of London
 Elizabeth McHugh, Electronic Resources Manager, University of the
Highlands and Islands
 Caren Milloy, Head of Projects, JISC Collections
 Chris Mounsey, Lecturer in English, University of Winchester
 Paul Rayson, Director of UCREL and Lecturer in Computer Science
School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University
 Amanda Salter, Librarian, Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and
Education, University of the West of England Erica Swain, Subject
Librarian - English, Communication & Philosophy / Religious Studies &
Theology, Cardiff University
Apologies received
 Ceri Sullivan, Professor, School of English, Bangor University
 Tracey Hill, Head of Department of English & Cultural Studies, Bath Spa University
 Simon Elliot, Chair in the History of the Book, Deputy Director, Centre for Manuscript and Print
Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London
 Andrew Murphy, Head of the School of English, University of St Andrews
 Jerome de Groot, Director of Research Training in the Arts, University of Manchester
 Bonnie Latimer, Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature, University of Plymouth
 Rachel Marshall, British Library
 Michael Popham, Head of Digital Initiatives, Bodleian Digital Library Systems & Services, Bodleian
Libraries, University of Oxford
 Matthew Steggle, Reader in English, Sheffield Hallam University
 Giles Bergel, JPR Lyell Research Fellow in the History of the Book, Merton College, University of
Oxford
 Kelly Centrelli, PhD Candidate (English Literature), Royal Holloway, University of London (NEW!)
 Godfried Croenen, Reader in French Historical Studies, University of Liverpool
 John Gilmore, Associate Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies,
University of Warwick
 Stephen Gregg, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Bath
 Beth Palmer, Lecturer in English Literature, University of Surrey
 Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature, Wadham College, University of
Oxford
 Mark Townsey, Coordinator of Postgraduate Research, Lecturer in Modern British History, University
of Liverpool
Notes of the last meeting and matters arising
 Members are invited to agree the notes of the
last meeting as an accurate record
Main matters arising are agenda items today
Actions from the last meeting (not on agenda)
Mimas was asked to go through the
accessibility report and assess what could be
done short term, long term and any costs
associated with the activity
Budget Update
Figures to be tabled on the day
Alternative / Historical Spellings
Paul Rayson to present
At present JHB does not support the full range of
alternative and/or historical spellings of words that
some other databases do support.
Paul Rayson and his colleague Alistair Baron have
undertaken some work at Lancaster University to
resolve this problem that we could use in JHB.
User Survey
See Appendix A
Platform Update
Since our last meeting…
http://www.jischistoricbooks.ac.uk/
 New sort options
 Indication if full text is available or not
 New actions to allow you to email records, download records to
reference management software or save records to list
 New MyBibliograpy: you can save results to your own
bibliography. Once you have saved items they are saved here until
you delete them (requires unique login)
 Additional PDF server installed
 Numerous bug fixes have been implemented
Development Log
The development log has been updated..
(Annex B)
 PDF Print
 We now have two PDF servers. One handles smaller requests
(under 50 pages) and the other handles larger requests. This is
being monitored and balanced. The development log includes
an item to convert all the books to PDFs so instant access is
available. This is a major issue at present for our users.
 Book and Pages display
 When JHB was first tested we did not have the “Book display”
standard option we had the “Pages display only”
 However the Book display only works when the search terms
are found in the Author or title
 If the search terms are only found in the text of the book the
results screen shows the page display instead
MARC records and OCR
MARC Records update
• MARC records are the metadata that describes the
book
• They are used by libraries and resource discovery
tools as a other route to finding books
• They help drive usage
• We are working with ESTC and the BL to purchase
these records for all the books in the collection
OCR update
• Will be updated at the meeting
Date of next meeting and AOB