What are digital repositories? Sheila Anderson, AHDS and Rachel Heery, UKOLN, looked into this back in February with their 'Digital Repositories Review'. The findings suggested that they are, perhaps obviously:
- 'Areas where digital content is deposited...whether by a content creator, owner or third party'
However, digital repositories also have the following characteristics:
- 'Architecture (which) manages content as well as metadata
- A minimum set of basic searches, eg put, get, search, access control'
- They 'must be sustainable, trusted, well supported and well managed'
The review has helped to inform the JISC Digital Repositories Programme. The Programme funds twenty-one projects, one of which is the Pilot Engineering Repository Xsearch.
The Pilot Engineering Repository Xsearch project - PerX - will look at the potential usefulness of a subject-based approach to digital repository resource discovery and develop a pilot service to provide subject resource discovery across a series of repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research communities. This pilot will then be used as a test-bed to explore the practical issues that would be encountered by a full-scale subject resource discovery service. Maintenance issues will be measured, end-user attitudes will be analysed, and various sustainability models for possible future fully fledged subject-based services will be investigated.
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Digital repository work within engineering is not well supported compared with other disciplines, and uptake and usage of digital repositories by the engineering community has been disappointingly slow. The findings of the Project will help to understand why this is the case. Advocacy materials will be produced which are expected to improve the situation. Although it is concerned specifically with engineering information, the findings of the project are also likely to be of interest to those involved in digital repositories in other subject areas.
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The PerX lead partner is the Institute for Computer Based Learning, School of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Heriot Watt University, UK, EH14 4AS. Other partners include: Cranfield University, Institution of Civil Engineers/Thomas Telford Limited, Adiuri Systems Ltd, The Geotechnical, Rock and Water Resources Library (GROW) in Arizona, and the JISC Regional Support Centre East Midlands.
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For more information, contact Roddy MacLeod, Senior Faculty Librarian, Heriot-Watt University Library, Edinburgh EH14 4AS. E-mail: R.A.MacLeod@hw.ac.uk
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