1. A centre of expertise in digital information management QA Focus: Providing A Quality Assurance Framework And Free Support Materials! Background UKOLN, a national centre of expertise in digital information management, has developed, in conjunction with the AHDS (the Arts And Humanities Data Service), a quality assurance (QA) framework. The QA framework can help ensure that the deliverables produced by digital library development projects are functional, widely accessible and interoperable. The work was funded by the JISC to support JISC’s development programmes. Wider Relevance The methodology and support materials, can also be used to support those involved in the provision of Web services. Why Is This Relevant To Me? This work will be of interest to you if: You need to keep up to date with developments, but do not have the time. You wish to provide advice to members of your community. You wish to make best use of resources developed with JISC funding.

2. A centre of expertise in digital information management The QA Focus Framework QA Focus The QA Focus project was funded to develop a quality assurance (QA) framework which would can help ensure that digital library project deliverables were functional, widely accessible and interoperable. The project successfully developed a lightweight QA framework together with a range of support materials. Technical policies Systematic checking procedures Compliance policies QA Framework The QA Focus framework has a layered approach: Projects develop technical policies Systematic procedures deployed to ensure compliance with policies Funders can select the compliance regime (e.g. self-assessment, penalty clauses, etc.) The framework has been described in several papers. To maximise its use support materials are available under a Creative Commons licence.

3. A centre of expertise in digital information management The QA Focus Briefing Papers QA Focus The QA Focus project has published over 80 briefing papers. The briefing papers address several issues: The briefing documents are available in both XHTML and Microsoft Word formats. Two forms of the MS Word documents are available – as A5 flyers and in A4 format. Relevance of standards and technologies. Ways in which such technologies can be deployed and summaries of the strengths and weaknesses of the technologies. Approaches to ensure that the technologies are used appropriately. Example of a briefing document

4. A centre of expertise in digital information management QA Focus Briefing Papers – Available Under A Creative Commons Licence Maximising The Impact Of This Work In order to maximise the impact of the QA Focus work UKOLN and AHDS have decided to make the QA Focus briefing documents available under a Creative Commons licence. This licence allows you: To download, edit and distribute the documents for non-commercial purposes provided that acknowledgements are given and that the documents also include a Creative Commons licence. Exploit These Resources! We hope that the availability of these resources will be of benef to others. Rather than having to reinvent the wheel and produce similar documents, making use of these resources will allow you to engage in other work. And if you enhance the documents this will help sustain the quality of the resources. Further Information QA Focus briefing documents are available at: Note that an RSS news feed is available which can be used to provide notification of new documents.