Implementing a quality assurance methodology for digital library programmes
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720510588542 |
| Pages | 97-104 |
| Author | Brian Kelly |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Implementing a quality assurance
methodology for digital library
programmes
Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, UK
Abstract
Purpose – Proposes investigating the work of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) QA
Focus advisory service.
Design/methodology/approach – Outlines the work of JISC’s QA Focus advisory service, which
has been developing a quality assurance methodology and support service that aims to ensure that
project deliverables will be interoperable.
Findings – The JISC vision for the Information Environment seeks to provide users with seamless
access to quality resources which are distributed across a range of providers, including JISC services,
the institutions themselves and commercial vendors. The vision is based on use of open standards,
which will allow developers and end user institutions freedom of choice in the application they use to
develop and provide access to resources. This approach is reliant on use of open standards to ensure
interoperability.
Originality/value – This paper is useful for those who plan to use the JISC’s QA Focus advisory
service.
Keywords Information retrieval, Resources, Digitallibraries, Quality assurance
Paper type Research paper
Background
Although there is an awareness of the importance of open standards across many
institutions and particularly those involved in development work for the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC), there has not been a culture of rigorous
checking to ensure that project deliverables comply with open standards. This is due in
part to the developmental culture within the higher education sector, which is
supportive of self-motivation and willingness to experiment.
This approach was probably sensible in the early days of web development: if the
eLib programme (www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/) had begun in the early 1990s use of
Gopher rather than the web could well have been mandated. We would then have faced
difficulties similar to those that arose when use of the OSI networking standard and
Coloured Book software was mandated and institutions were discouraged from using
internet protocols.
Fortunately, however, we are now in a more stable environment: the internet and the
world wide web have been accepted as the killer applications for the development of a
rich set of distributed network services. The underlying architectural framework for
the web has also matured, and it is widely acknowledged that XML provides the meta
format for the development of new data formats.
In light of the growing maturity of the network environment infrastructure we are
now in a position to progress from the experimental phase and seek to adopt more
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Implementing a
QA methodology
97
VINE: The journal of information and
knowledge management systems
Vol. 35 No. 1/2, 2005
pp. 97-104
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720510588542
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