subject: DLF
digital library federation
JISC
Joint Information Systems Committee
CLIR Press Releases
For Immediate Release: October 19, 2004
Contact: David Seaman dseaman@clir.org
JISC Joins the Digital Library Federation
The Executive Committee of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) today announced that the United Kingdom’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has joined the DLF as its first Ally from outside the United States. JISC is a joint committee of the UK further and higher education funding councils and is responsible for supporting the innovative use of information and communication technology to support learning, teaching, and research.
DLF currently has 33 member libraries (Partners) and four other Allies: the Coalition for Networked Information, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, and RLG.
“I am delighted that JISC has accepted our invitation to join,” said David Seaman, executive director of the DLF. “We are a fast-moving consortium of very active, academic digital libraries and the addition of a major UK funding agency will significantly enrich our collaborative work and help ensure we are better informed about non-US initiatives.”
“JISC and the DLF have each stimulated numerous studies and development efforts intended to improve the transit from the services and collections offered by traditional, analog libraries to the exploitation of digital services, collections, and opportunities,” said Michael A. Keller, Stanford’s university librarian and chair of the executive committee of the DLF. Coordinating and perhaps collaborating on such efforts can only improve the rate and extent of that exploitation. DLF is delighted to have JISC as an Ally and looks forward to having them on board.”
Stuart Dempster, program manager at JISC, said: “The JISC-DLF partnership brings together two of the world’s leading innovators in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within education and research. This partnership will allow us to exploit the opportunities and address the challenges presented to academic libraries in the digital age through greater collaboration and cooperation. The JISC is delighted to be working with the DLF, which will bring real benefits to the learning, teaching, and research community.”
The Digital Library Federation, founded in 1995, is a partnership organization of 38 academic libraries and related organizations that are pioneering the use of electronic-information technologies to extend their collections and services. Through its strategic partnerships, the DLF provides leadership for libraries by: identifying standards and “best practices” for digital collections and network access; coordinating research and development in libraries’ use of technology; and incubating projects and services that libraries need but cannot develop individually. The DLF operates under the administration umbrella of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). For further information, see the DLF Web site at http://www.diglib.org/, or contact David Seaman at 202-939-4762; dseaman@clir.org.
JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) is a joint committee of the UK further and higher education funding bodies, best known for providing the UK’s JANET network, a range of support, content and advisory services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources. Information about the JISC and its services and programs can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/. For further information, contact Philip Pothen on +44 (0)20 7848 2935 or 07887 564 006; email p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk.
