Digitized content in the UK research library and archives sector

A study of the current provision of digitized collections for researchers in the UK higher education sector was carried out through desk research, a Web-based questionnaire of research libraries and interviews. The study identified a great deal of digitized 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 digitization has 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 coordinated and distributed, rather than centralized, one.