JISC is investing in Mimas to develop new content services for the UK academic community. Recent funding successes highlight our strong relationship with JISC and demonstrate their long-term commitment to Mimas.

We'll be working with JISC and JISC Collections on the eJournal Archive, Historic Books Platform and Journal Usage Statistics Portal – and to develop mobile applications, increase access to Open Access journal content and enrich search experiences.

New content services and enhancements

JISC eJournal Archive

The eJournal Archive will bring together the journal archives from Oxford University Press (OUP), Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), Institute of Physics (IOP), and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in a single interface.

This service will allow users to cross-search some 4 million articles with one simple tool. It will be built using Autonomy IDOL, a powerful platform providing semantic search capability of full-text content, which will result in more sophisticated and contextually meaningful results that span disparate datasets.

We are also in discussions with JISC and JSTOR about how mutual cross-searching can be achieved so that users of either service might be able to search across databases as seamlessly as possible.

Historic Books Platform

This platform will provide access to two significant digital collections:

• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

The British Library has digitised 65,000 19th Century books, and these will also be included in the service and made freely available to the UK academic community.

Again, deploying Autonomy IDOL means we can provide significant, powerful search capabilities of full-text content for academic users in ways not previously possible. Scholars will soon be able to dig deep into the content and find undiscovered historical or thematic relationships across texts.

Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP)

Electronic journals represent a significant and growing part of an academic library's offerings. In 2007, the academic community spent £80 million on e-journal licences – collectively, those purchases yielded more than 102 million downloads.

We're leading on the JUSP project, partnering with Evidence Base at Birmingham City University, Cranfield University and JISC Collections to transition a well-received prototype to full service by the end of October 2010.

The portal aims to provide:

• regular reports on usage of the NESLi2 deals to JISC Collections and its negotiating agents. This will be essential information for future negotiations, illustrating the value of the deals to the JISC community.
• a single place to view and download institutional usage reports from NESLi2 publishers – rather than having to visit each publisher's site separately. This will allow libraries to benchmark their usage against others.

Interest in these new developments has already prompted invitations to speak at prestigious conferences such as UKSG, NASIG and ICOLC.

Landmap metadata – source, integrate and enhance

Having knowledge about how geospatial data is acquired, processed and delivered is essential for producing robust, reliable results in research.

This project aims to meet user demand for high-quality metadata and greatly enhance data discovery and usage for the Landmap Service by developing a Catalogue Service for the Web (CS-W).

Zetoc Enhancements 2

This project aims to enhance Zetoc functionality and content through:

• development of personalisation features within the Zetoc Search interface
• aggregation and Table of Contents (TOC) services
• expansion of Open Access (OA) content

Mobile Copac and Archives Hub

Because Copac and Archives Hub users spend a significant time travelling, visiting special collections and archives across the UK, this project aims to deliver mobile search interfaces that use proven technologies.

We hope to emphasise how 'geoaware' functionality can be employed to enhance the search and discovery experience (e.g. finding the nearest copy of a particular book, easily downloading maps and directions to archives).

New times, new business models

Keith Cole, Director of Mimas, says of the new investment in the organisation:

"A key strategic priority for Mimas is both securing and diversifying funding for 2010–2011 and beyond. We are pleased to announce that this is reflected in a number of funding successes over recent months, which have brought in new funding for 2010–2011."

At the same time, Keith cautions:

"The significance of the new services, in particular, is that they offer the potential for longer-term funding. However, long-term sustainability will require the development of appropriate business models that are fit for the current economic climate – and less reliant on continued and long-term public investment.

"We look forward to working with JISC to help make this happen, and help bring real cost-savings to institutions through shared services."

Notes for editors

Useful links

• Mimas website: http://mimas.ac.uk
• Landmap website: http://landmap.mimas.ac.uk
• Zetoc website: http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk
• Copac website: http://copac.ac.uk
• Archives Hub website: http://archiveshub.ac.uk
• JISC website: http://www.jisc.ac.uk
• JISC Collections website: http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk
• Autonomy IDOL: http://www.autonomy.com/content/Products/products-idol-server/
• Evidence Base at Birmingham City University: http://www.ebase.bcu.ac.uk
• Cranfield University: http://www.cranfield.ac.uk

Contact

Joy Palmer
Mimas, The University of Manchester
E: joy.palmer@manchester.ac.uk
T: 0161 306 6622