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:
- EPub for word processing users
- Metadata in word processing monographs
- Introducing Epub2Html – adding a plain HTML view to an EPUB
- How to add EPUB support to EPrints
- Anthologize: a WordPress based collection tool
- Making EPUB from WordPress (and other) web collections
- The repository is watching: automated harvesting from replicated filesystems
- Template design issues for WordProcessors and (possible future) EPUB export
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:
- Project Description
- Devices for Research
- The Unboxing Experience
- Purchasing and Installing Content, and Integration
- Time to Launch Application, Open a Book and Flip Page
- Usability Study
- iPad Usability Study
- Kindle DX Usability Study
- XOOM Usability Study
- Evaluation Based on Neilsen’s Heuristics
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.
This blog hosted by EDINA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 UK: Scotland License.