We regret to inform our users and contributors that JISC has announced that its funding for Intute will be cut with effect from August 2010. It is JISC policy that, wherever possible, services move from being fully funded by JISC to being sustainable by other means. Unfortunately in the current economic climate no realistic alternative funding model for Intute as it currently stands has been identified.
Despite this JISC has acknowledged the pioneering work of Intute, its value to the community, and the insights it has given into the use of the Internet in education.
Our current service level will be maintained until 1 August 2010. After this date, Intute will still be available but with minimal maintenance. In addition, we are looking at possibilities to develop Informs and the Virtual Training Suite and offer these as membership services.
We would like to thank those who have used, contributed to and supported Intute over the years.
Our intention is to make a further announcement in early spring with a more detailed description of what we will be able to offer after 1 August 2010.
In the meantime, if you have any pressing questions please send them to us by following our Feedback link, click on Helpdesk, then submit your question selecting “Funding cut” in the “Type of question” box.
Caroline Williams
Executive Director of Intute
Frances Bell says: December 16, 2009 @ 10:21 am
This is really bad news. Intute offers content, community and quality control. I can see that additional funding is needed to provide a quality control servicebut can’t steps be taken to preserve content and community. Could all content be made Creative Commons licensed? and could social networks (I think this has already been raised to help preserve community links?
Thanks for the service you are providing – I am really sorry to hear it will cease.
Sad News from the UK: Intute’s Funding Has Been Cut; After August 2010 Will Remain Available with “Minimal Maintenance” « ResourceShelf says: December 16, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
[...] Caroline Williams, Executive Director of Intute writes: We regret to inform our users and contributors that JISC has announced that its funding for Intute will be cut with effect from August 2010. It is JISC policy that, wherever possible, services move from being fully funded by JISC to being sustainable by other means. Unfortunately in the current economic climate no realistic alternative funding model for Intute as it currently stands has been identified. [...]
Online Insider » Intute Loses Funding says: December 16, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
[...] executive director announced this morning that Intute has lost its JISC funding and will maintain its current level of service [...]
Sarah Crofts says: December 16, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
I am shocked that the Intute service will not be maintained at the existing level after August 2010. I have found the Virtual Training Suite invaluable particularly for law. The comment from JISC that “Technology and user behaviour has evolved and the Intute model has not been able to keep up with those changes” does not seem accurate to me. I was most impressed with the changes at the last update of Internet for Law which include all sorts of new developments including social media.
I believe that resources like Intute are needed more than ever to help keep law students – not to mention staff – up to date with the best of the web.
enver Aydin says: December 16, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
I believe it is very very good
Sue House says: December 16, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
I’m really sorry to hear that Intute will cease in it’s current form. As with the previous commenter, I’ve found it a very valuable service for Law, together with the recently updated Internet for Law tutorial.
One of my academics has suggested opening it up for voluntary updating/contributions. This model may be a better fit now with the rise of social/community web 2.0 ways of working?
Clare says: December 16, 2009 @ 4:25 pm
I’m really sorry to hear this. Intute is a vital part of the training I provide on web searching to my students. I have used Informs, Virtual Training Suite and the search functions regularly and to lose any of these is a big loss. If there is a community led way of keeping this going, I think we should do so.
Red Intute! « Een beetje adjunct says: December 16, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
[...] maar iedereen zal het toch betreuren dat JISC, zeg maar de Britse SURF, per 1 augustus 2010 de financiering van Intute stop zet. Intute? Ja, Intute. Sinds 2006 bekend onder deze naam, maar daarvoor als het Resource [...]
Intute service axed « JURN blog says: December 17, 2009 @ 5:04 am
[...] December 2009 in Academic search, Spotted in the news Well, I guess it’s official now. The best academic web-curation service is to have funding completely withdrawn… We regret to [...]
Tom Franklin says: December 17, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
Really sorry to hear that Intute is losing its JISC funding, and will therefore have to close. It is a shame that it has not really been able to explore alternative sources or given time to develop an alternative funding model. Given a bit more time we might have had an advertising funded model.
Good luck.
Lisa Gold says: December 17, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
Intute is too valuable a resource to just abandon. Is there any way to save it? What is Intute’s annual budget? Why can’t the Intute consortium explore ways to fund it themselves? What about an Internet fundraising drive, or trying to raise funds from institutions, foundations, or advertising? How about partnering with US universities to share the costs? Or letting some other organization or institution take over the project?
My most recent blog post is about Intute:
http://lisagoldresearch.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/intute-one-of-the-best-link-collections-for-research-has-lost-its-funding/
John Kirriemuir says: December 17, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
Vanya Gallimore says: December 18, 2009 @ 11:26 am
I am very disappointed with this decision. I demonstrate Intute at all my library training sessions and find it an invaluable resource for helping students understand about effective web searching. I really hope that the Higher Education community can pull together to fund Intute as it stands or a successor to it.
Roddy MacLeod says: December 18, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Sorry to hear that news.
Jet says: December 19, 2009 @ 10:06 am
This is very much painful to know this. What is most agonizing is that we lost many companies because of this severe depression of the economy.
Alas for Intute « The Bioscope says: December 19, 2009 @ 7:48 pm
[...] somewhat scary-sounding UK body which support online services for UK universities, but the JISC has just announced a funding cut from August 2010, the result being that Intute will no longer be updated from that point [...]
Ihar Ivanou says: December 22, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
What a shame! Intute is one of the handful online resources I confidently recomend to all our students. It is much better – both from the content and usability point of view – than the most of e-resources FE libraries are paying a lot of money for.
Science Equipment says: December 22, 2009 @ 4:09 pm
Really sorry to hear that, it is most unfortunate. A huge shame
Intute – JISC withdraws funding from 1 August 2010 « says: December 22, 2009 @ 6:01 pm
[...] – JISC withdraws funding from 1 August 2010 JISC has announced that it will cease funding of the Intute service from 1 August 2010. Intute is investigating alternate forms of funding, and exploring options for [...]
Michael Köln says: December 22, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
Sorry to hear that… I’m sure you’ll find a way to handle this!
Mike Sharpe says: December 22, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
Shocked and saddened – I’ll continue using the excellent resources for as long as they’re available, on whatever basis. Decision-makers on JISC should hang their heads in shame…
Cecee says: December 23, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
I’m really sorry to hear this. Intute is one of the few websites that actually do this indexing properly.
What a shame
seo training says: December 24, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
That’s a real shame – I’ve gained such a lot from these virtual resources, particularly with respect to the information about new technologies.
Fingers crossed that something can be done to save the service
Best wishes
Alison
Caroline Cooke says: December 29, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
Awful news. Surely something can be done? We recommend Intute as the place for students to start thier online research in our tutorials, it’s invaluable. The content is excellent & our students enjoy using it. It’s demise would leave a big hole, we would be willing to pay to access it I’m sure.
The Good Fairy Librarian says: January 1, 2010 @ 10:52 pm
Dreadful ,dreadful news .I recommend this site every time for IL skills base for all subjects and all students from KS 4 + .Good luck for acquiring funds.!
Pam Thompson says: January 4, 2010 @ 11:27 am
Sad, but not surprising news. There is a danger with all JISC-funded projects that very little thought is given to sustainablity. In the longer term, this inevitably means the projects supported with often large funding wither and die because there is nowhere to host them and no funding to develop and maintain them. When will there be some joined-up thinking? Cutting-edge projects are all very well, but can we please persuade someone to ensure that there is a means of retaining all the accumulated expertise, data and potential within them?
Keith Nockels says: January 11, 2010 @ 9:14 am
Very sorry to hear this news, although perhaps not entirely surprised with regard to Intute itself. But I am rather concerned about the future of Informs – we were very relieved here (University of Leicester Library) when Informs became part of Intute and therefore in receipt of predictable funding. We are looking for ways to deliver information skills training in more pressured times and had thought to build on our own use of Informs. With an uncertain future for Informs, this leaves us in a bit of a quandary.
Alison Bruce says: January 26, 2010 @ 5:24 pm
Terrible to hear this. We’ve been encouraging senior pupils to use this so they go to university with an idea of the standard of resources they should be using
Jenny Monds says: February 8, 2010 @ 3:58 pm
That’s a great shame. Intute provides a wonderful service. If it is not kept up, it will all have been in vain.
Michelle Perrott says: February 12, 2010 @ 3:12 pm
Very disappointing news. I’ve used Intute extensively as a university librarian over the years and now as a school librarian. It is invaluable, particularly for schools who don’t have adequate funding to subscribe to online databases for students. It’s really useful in guiding sixth formers to use good quality websites instead of depending on the first thing they find on Google. A real loss and will make it even harder to develop students’ information literacy skills.
Institute of Hospitality says: February 24, 2010 @ 9:25 am
The Institute is very disappointed to learn of the funding cut for Intute, which is an excellent service. Institute staff and members have appreciated the HLST portal in particular and, although there may be a legacy site remaining for a while, the quality will quickly disappear without the regular attention of the skilled Intute staff. Very disappointing indeed!
Bebek says: March 18, 2010 @ 1:41 am
I’m really sorry to hear this. Intute is one of the few websites that actually do this indexing properly.
What a shame..