Today Jisc and Ithaka S+R are launching Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content (4.5 MB PDF, click here to download), a new report aimed at helping digital projects to thrive.

This report, which provides a close look at three institutions (UCL, Imperial War Museums and the National Library of Wales) in the United Kingdom confirms:

• How fragmented the digital landscape is at universities and within other organizations
• How there are examples of good practice within and outside higher education that all can learn from but that greater co-ordination is required to deliver this at a UK level
• How little the topic of post-build sustainability comes up at the higher levels of administration
• How risk is present within the current system, concerning the sustainability of digital content.

“It’s a wakeup call for us all,” said Andrew Green, chief executive and librarian at the National Library of Wales. “It’s essential reading for anyone in the business of access to digital content.”

The report, complete with effective recommendations includes a Sustainability Health Check Tool for Digital Content Projects, which helps people to ascertain what tools or resources projects could use to be even more successful.

With funding from the Jisc- led Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) in the United Kingdom, the Canadian Heritage Information Network, and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the United States, Ithaka S+R is conducting a multi-year research program to shed light on common challenges associated with sustaining digital projects beyond implementation and provide guidance and tools to help administrators, project leaders, librarians, and funders ensure that projects continue to grow. This report is the first in the series.

If you interested in watching interviews covering how universities, museums and libraries are developing capacity and capacity to sustain digital content you may also find these links useful:

• SCA blog post on ‘Sustaining Our Digital Future’gives an overview of the issues and recommendations

• Video interviews with the PI gives more in-depth analysis of the research findings, opportunities and recommendations. They include:

• Institutional strategies for Universities with Nancy Maron: Short video
• Institutional strategies for Universities with Nancy Maron: Full Version
• Institutional strategies for Libraries and Museums with Nancy Maron video

Video interviews on the organisational perspectives from senior executives at UCL, IWM and NLW:

• Diane Lees, Director General of the Imperial War Museums
• Andrew Green, Chief Executive and Librarian at the National Library of Wales
• Prof David Price, Vice-Provost (Research) at UCL
• Previous research and publications on business models and sustainability has been undertaken for the Strategic Content Alliance by Ithaka S+R
• Advice and guidance on establishing a digital preservation policy
• Advice and guidance on managing the sustainability of digital collections

Find out more about the SCA