Tuesday 15 July 2008

Training event on cultural change

The EMBED project is hosting a training event in September on Understanding Organisational Cultures and their Impact on Repository Growth and Development. This is one of series of three JISC meetings to address advocacy and cultual change: the second will be hosted by NECTAR and WRAP in December and will focus on practical approaches to demonstrate repository value; the third will be hosted by SUETr in early 2009 and will explore interaction with publishers and knowledge of the publishing process in the context of advocacy and achieving cultural change.

'Understanding Organisational Cultures: Impact on Repository Growth and Development' will explore the cultural issues affecting the growth of institutional and subject repositories throughout the HE sector and try to identify solutions to match different institutional cultures. The event is aimed at those who have an existing repository and wish to enhance and develop their service, rather than those institutions who are new to the repository arena.

Date: September 9th 2008
Location: Cranfield
Cost: Free to SUE projects

More information about the event is available from the EMBED wiki.

MFI: Metadata For Images

Does your repository contain images or will it hold images in the near future? If so, then this forthcoming TASI workshop may be for you. The workshop will explore a range of issues involved in creating metadata for image collections including standards, metadata for different purposes, metadata for different types of collections and metadata storage options.

Date: July 25th 2008
Location: Bristol
Cost: £150 for UK HE/FE institutions.

More details are available on the TASI website.

Thursday 10 July 2008

Managing IPR issues for e-learning materials

SUEtr will be running an event on IPR later in the year. In the meantime, if you want to know more about IPR within the specific context of e-learning materials, take a look at the outputs of the TrustDR project.

The project developed a package of materials to help repository managers update and clarify their institutional policies and infrastructures so they can make best use of technologies to support teaching and learning. As the website states, 'confusion, lack of awareness, poor practice, contradictory policy and risk aversion currently dominate thinking about this subject at all levels – particularly amongst senior management. This is presenting a major obstacle to the effective uptake of e-learning in our tertiary education system. In this pack we explicitly link the task of overhauling the IPR regimes in our institutions to the organisational and professional ‘process change' that is required to make effective use of e-learning – especially in relation to the introduction and extension of flexible learning delivery.'