JISC

Start date: 1 October 2005

End date: 1 July 2006

JISC theme(s): Information environment

Committees: JISC Integrated Information Environment committee

Working Groups: PALS metadata and interoperability working group

Over recent years the JISC, through its Information Environment Programme, has been developing a strategy and architecture that will help to provide a range of services, tools and mechanisms for colleges and universities to exploit fully the value of online resources and services. It is intended to enable presentation, delivery and use of online resources in ways tailored to support individual and institutional requirements in learning, teaching and research. The vision of the JISC Information Environment is to include all types of resources and in the long term to contribute to a cross sector, rich and diverse digital environment.

One of the main drivers behind this strategy is the need for more seamless ways to discover quality resources. The Further and Higher Education community need to be able to discover resources in more integrated and simpler ways than currently available. Publishers and aggregators have an opportunity to exploit this market by using protocols and standards that will enable seamless searching of resources.

Applying appropriate metadata is essential if publishers’ content is to be identified and retrieved appropriately. It is equally crucial to other activities such as long-term preservation. It is therefore vital that publishers are able and willing to apply appropriate metadata to their electronic content.

Working closely with the  PALS Metadata and Interoperability working group, JISC has recently funded a number of Metadata and Interoperability projects.

Aim and Objectives

The aim of the projects is to explore the issues surrounding the adoption of metadata standards by publishers and to encourage the widespread engagement of the publishing community in the use of appropriate metadata. Six projects of four months have been funded to focus on the following three main areas:

• Publisher and aggregator interoperability pilots, looking to release metadata in JISC-funded portals or VLEs using   various open standards, such as Z39.50, OAI, RSS, OpenURL and DOI or PURL
• Publisher initiative interoperability projects, looking to implement publisher originated standards and initiatives as part of the JISC Information Environment or to develop mapping between existing publisher and other metadata schemas.
• Related documentation and case studies, looking to produce guidance and documentation to assist publishers with linking to JISC Information Environment development work.

A call for proposals for the Metadata and Interoperability projects was issued under Funding 5/03.