JISC Digital Media Blog

Happy 1st Birthday JISC Digital Media!

Posted by Karla Youngs on Tuesday 09 February 2010 at 8:00am
Tags: news

Today JISC Digital Media celebrates its first Birthday!

Although the service, previously known as TASI, has been in existence for more than ten years, the team re-branded last year to reflect the growth in the service offering increased support and advice to the FE and HE sector.

JISC Digital Media - a JISC Advance service - provides advice, training and guidance on the creation and use of digital media collections (still images, moving images and sound) and their use in learning, teaching and research within the UK FE and HE communities.

From help with finding and using the right media, to advice on creating and delivering digital formats or consultancy on managing a digitisation project, the team promotes good practice, technical expertise, the use of appropriate standards and the sharing of knowledge within education.

The achievements of the last 12 months have also given the team added cause for celebration - in addition to developing new advice documents and training courses for all media (audio, still image and moving image), the increase in team numbers has given us the opportunity to attend and participate in a wide range of both education and media specific conferences and exhibitions. We gained the platform at many events, promoting the JISC Digital Media team’s expertise and services.

In June 2009 the JISC funded project Video Assist was launched by the team. To date, four institutions have been successful in their bids for Video Assist and have benefited from the team’s film expertise.  A final call for the third and final round of entries closes on 26 February 2010 - go to the Video Assist page for further details.

September saw two launches: firstly, our fortnightly on-line surgery - a one-hour online help and support session, with themes ranging from Basic Microphone Technique and Placement to Using Flickr as a Source of Free-to-Use Images. Secondly, the launch of the service’s first newsletter Intermedia - a quarterly update on the work undertaken by the service and happenings in the world of digital media.

Happy Birthday JISC Digital Media!

If you would like JISC Digital Media to attend or present at your event or require any further information please contact Karla Youngs, Director on 0117 331 4380; email info@jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk or call 0117 331 4447.

All you need to know about copyright

Posted by John Hargreaves on Wednesday 03 February 2010 at 1:47pm
Tags: copyright | news

We have just published three new advice documents on copyright and digital media.

Meadows in Imperial Valley, California. Photo from Oregon State University Archives on Flickr: The Commons. No known copyright restrictions

The first is Copyright: An Overview which provides a broad introduction to the subject: What is copyright? How long does it last? What are the exceptions that allow use of copyrighted works?

We also have Audiovisual Copyright: Frequently Asked Questions which answers the most common enquiries we receive through our helpdesk.

Finally there’s Copyright and Still Images: Frequently Asked Questions - these too are based on helpdesk questions.

Free-to-use images from US National Archives

Posted by Antony Theobald on Tuesday 02 February 2010 at 11:02am
Tags: digital collections | finding images | flickr

Another great selection of images is now available for all to use without restriction via Flickr.

Approaching Logan Airport. 05/1973. Photo from U.S. National Archives on Flickr: The Commons. No known copyright restrictions.

The U.S. National Archives is the latest organisation to make some of its vast collection available to the public through The Commons on photo sharing site Flickr.

As with all the collections on The Commons, the images are available to use with no known copyright restrictions.

Among the gems, you’ll find over 200 landscapes by Ansel Adams and a selection of photos from the Documerica Project - the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)‘s document of environmental problems, EPA activities and everyday life in the 1970s.

There are many other historical photographs and documents - it’s well worth a look.

“Top Women” at U.S. Steel’s Gary, Indiana, Works, 1940-1945. Photo from U.S. National Archives on Flickr: The Commons. No known copyright restrictions.

More information is available on the Flickr blog and from the U.S. National Archives.

Using photos to enhance user experience

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 29 January 2010 at 11:25am
Tags: inspiration | interfaces | photographs | photography | usability | user experience

Local usability consultancy Cx parnters have a thought provoking take on the power of photos to enhance your resources.

Take a few minutes to explore 10 ways you can use photos to influence the user experience

Credit: Ant Theobald

Negative thinking

Posted by Nigel Goldsmith on Wednesday 27 January 2010 at 1:27pm
Tags: digitisation | negatives | news | photographs | photography | restoration | scanning

We have just released a new advice document looking at the different materials used to make film for stills and moving images.

A lot of historic film footage was captured on stock which is highly unstable and may not be around much longer. Some collections are potentially explosive and so this document - Analogue Film Types Used for Still and Moving Images - is aimed at helping users identify older film negatives in their collection.

The iconic image of the ‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange, 1936. Photo from The Library of Congress on Flickr: The Commons - No known copyright restrictions

This picture was initially photographed on highly unstable nitrate film.

Everything you need to know about MP3

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 3:37pm
Tags: audio editing | file formats | metadata | news | sound recordings

A new advice document looking at use and management of the popular MP3 audio format. From its suitability for use delivering audio in teaching and learning, to how to use ID3 tags to identify, catalogue and manage your MP3 resources, we look at all aspects of this most well known of sound file types.

If you use digital audio in any way at all, you have probably come across MP3s. Home and office computers, mobile phones, iPods, media players… even car stereos and games consoles all now offer facilities for playing back MP3 audio, as well as viewing cover art, lyrics and the myriad other tags which can accompany them. But while most people are at least familiar with what an MP3 is, many don’t know how MP3 works, and which of its many options to choose to get the best from it.

Our new User Guide to MP3 aims to explain the essentials of MP3 in an accessible way, as well as exploring its more esoteric audio options and extended capabilities for encapsulating rich metadata.

There is a huge range of tools for encoding, decoding and editing MP3, so as well as technical background we cover some common tasks and processes, and include links to resources to enable you to become an MP3 power user!

Case study - Greenhead college

Posted by Zak Mensah on Monday 18 January 2010 at 9:07am
Tags: e-learning | video | vle | moodle | workflow

Our sister service has recently released a case study detailing work that Greenhead College has done on creating a video storage system for use with Moodle.

Greenhead College provides and streams video content via its virtual learning environment (VLE) to enable concurrent viewing of content for all students and staff 24/7. By developing its own media server, to store video content and link it to its VLE, Greenhead has seen increased usage of its VLE, and has also removed the constraints of limited physical space for hard-copy collections in the library. A cross-organisational approach has brought together the ‘magic triangle’ of curriculum, learning resources and the technical team, which has resulted in seamless access to targeted, subject-based learning resources.

Taken from the case study summary

This case study will be of interest to those interested in the use of online video for teaching and learning within a VLE environment.

Visit: Greenhead College: Joining up curriculum, learning resources and the technical team. The case study was produced by JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire & Humber on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.

Two new lighting documents

Posted by Nigel Goldsmith on Monday 11 January 2010 at 3:44pm
Tags: lighting | news | photography | video

We have just released two advice documents which cover lighting for stills and video production. 

The Taking Pictures under Available Light document provides a useful introduction to anyone using ambient light or other readily available light sources to illuminate a subject.

The Light Sources for Still and Moving Images document looks at a range of lighting from daylight through to specialist studio systems. It also looks at the different qualities and colour characteristics of each light type and how the light quality can be modified.

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Describing your digital resources

Posted by Antony Theobald on Friday 08 January 2010 at 10:56am
Tags: delivery | digital collections | metadata | news

We have just published our completely updated advice documents on metadata.

Photo by Fabrizio Sciami on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons licence

Metadata is essentially structured textual information that describes something about the creation, content or context of an individual file or collection of many digital files.

If you have a collection of digital resources - images, video or audio files - you and the users of those files will need metadata to describe, organise and find them.

There are eight documents in all - if you are new to metadata, we would recommend starting with An Introduction to Metadata.

• An Introduction to Metadata
• Metadata and Digital Images
• Metadata and Audio Resources
• Metadata and Digital Video
• Metadata Standards and Interoperability
• Putting Things in Order: a Directory of Metadata Schemas and Related Standards
• Controlling your Language: a Directory of Metadata Vocabularies
• Approaches to Describing Images

Latest newsletter now available

Posted by Antony Theobald on Tuesday 05 January 2010 at 2:15pm
Tags: news

The second issue of our newsletter Intermedia is now available.

Make an e-book from an RSS feed

Posted by Zak Mensah on Tuesday 05 January 2010 at 9:00am
Tags: e-learning | workflow

Joss Winn from the University of Lincoln, nicely explains how ‘Creating a PDF or eBook from an RSS feed’ can easily be done. Image credit.

Video Assist round two institutions have been chosen

Posted by Steve Hull on Friday 18 December 2009 at 12:33pm
Tags:

Two institutions have been selected to receive Video Assist consultation for round two, beginning in January and continuing through the end of March.

Derwen College applied for assistance in the production of videos which illustrate best practices, particularly in the teaching of students with learning difficulties and disabilities.  The University of Manchester’s application concerns the use of video to illustrate interview techniques for social sciences research.

A number of excellent proposals were received for Video Assist, but unfortunately only two could be chosen.  However, there is a second round coming up very soon.  The deadline for applications for the next Video Assist is the 26th of February.  The two institutions selected from this round will receive their Video Assist support between April and July of next year, and all FE and HE institutions in the UK are invited to apply.  For further information please see the Video Assist pages on our website.