Digitised content in the UK research library and archives sector

A study of the current provision of digitised collections for researchers in the UK higher education sector was carried out through desk research, a Webbased questionnaire of research libraries and interviews. The study identified a great deal of digitised material in the sector and there has been considerable expenditure of UK public funds in the creation of digital material in the last ten years. However, funding of digitisation been piecemeal and uncoordinated. It is clear that there is a need for coordination, but no agreement on how it should be implemented. Any future national approach would have to be a co-ordinated and distributed, rather than centralised, one.