Jisc and Wiley extend partnership

Jisc and Wiley have expanded their partnership with leading UK universities and the British Science Association (BSA) with the creation of a new digital collection: the British Association for the Advancement of Science - Collections on the History of Science (1830s-1970s).

The newly formed collection will be hosted on the Wiley Digital Archives platform.

Featuring in this collection are 150 years of materials relating to the work of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; extensive correspondence from Sir Charles Wheatstone, co-inventor of the electric telegraph;  the lecture notes of Nobel prize winner Sir William Ramsay, whose work led to a new section of the periodic table and the papers of Lord Kelvin covering his huge contributions to the study of electricity, magnetism and thermodynamics. Upon its completion, the digital collection will comprise of one million pages.   

Together with Jisc, Wiley has empowered Jisc-affiliated university libraries and archives to take part in the program by putting their collections forward for digitisation and offering access to the archive. Participating universities, whose content was selected on the recommendation of prominent academics, include the Universities of Leicester, Glasgow, Oxford, Leeds, London and Liverpool, University College London, King’s College London, and the  British Science Association and Mathematical Associaction.

Paola Marchionni, Jisc’s head of digital resources for teaching, learning and research,  said: 'We are delighted to have found a new way of giving institutions the opportunity to open up their unique collections for the benefit of the academic community in a financially sustainable way. This innovative partnership is the first in the world to enable university libraries and archives to influence the content selection of a commercial product that is free to access to all UK members.'

Jay Flynn, chief product officer of research at Wiley, added: 'The importance of giving academics access to research wherever they are in the world has become even more critical. Our partnership with Jisc continues to reflect the importance of collaboration to bring new solutions to our communities. We are thrilled to be pioneering a new business model for digitisation of special and archival collections.'