Final Post

This is our final post on the jiscPUB blog which draws together all the key project information and main achievements.

Project tag: #jiscPUB

Description: The Digital Monograph Technical Landscape study (a.k.a. #jiscPUB) was a six month thinktank set up by the JISC in the first half of 2011 to explore the potential value that the use of the ePUB specification could bring to the Higher and Further Education sector if further adopted in UK Universities.

Key deliverables 1: Exemplars & Recommendations report

The project final report describes the historical perspective on electronic publishing, with details on how digital books are authored, both in a scholarly context and in general ebook production terms, before describing future work that could be actionable and relevant to a scholarly publishing audience, with a goal towards providing better tooling for both authors and readers of scholarly works. The report is available in a variety of formats:

i) Online at the Final Report page on this blog.

ii) Common ebook formats – epub (usable on most devices), mobi (for Kindle users) and pdf (for everyone else).

Key deliverables 2: Tool investigation

The project think-tank team investigated the .epub format, and looked at various tools to create ebook formats from traditional word processing software, e.g. MS Word or OpenOffice, non-conventional platforms, e.g. blogs, and also experimental authoring environments, e.g. ‘desktop repositories’. These findings are published as a series of blog posts:

Key deliverables 3: Device Usability Study

Project think-tank members also carried out lightweight usability testing of common devices that could be used in an academic setting. The findings are set out in a series of blog posts on the UKOLN Dev blog:

Key deliverables 4: User insights

The project think-tank members also carried out a number of focus grops with Early Career Researchers and Postgraduate Students at the University of Edinburgh. Insights from these groups fed into the other key deliverables. The wider picture of how ebooks and new forms of authorship could fit into emerging humanities research was also considered in a blog post here:

Lead Institution: EDINA – The University of Edinburgh

Person responsible for documentation: Theo Andrew

Project partners and roles: Project Manager: Theo Andrew (EDINA), Technical Publishing expert & Report Author: Liza Daly (Threepress Consulting Ltd.), Technical Tools expert: Peter Sefton (formerly Australian Digital Futures Institute), Device reader & Usability expert: Emma Tonkin (UKOLN), Usability advisor: Harsh Khatri (University of Bath) and Programme Manager: David F. Flanders (JISC).

Project started: Feb 2011

Project finished: July 2011, extended to Dec 2011

Project budget: £39,993

The Digital Monograph Technical Landscape study (#jiscPUB) was supported by JISC as part of it’s Repository Infrastructure Programme.

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