The Resource Discovery Network'''

1
The Resource Discovery Network...
Enhancing the Internet for Learning, Teaching and
Research www.rdn.ac.uk

• Discover diversity

Discover depth
Discover quality
2
From gateway to portal

• A Terminology Check
• http//www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/terminology
• Internet Resource Catalogue
• Subject Gateway
• Portal
• Distributed National Electronic Resource DNER

3
Introducing the RDN

• A summary
• Brief historical context surrounding the
  emergence of RDN
• Current service and developments
• Future aims and aspirations
• Illustrating an example of how RDN is enhancing
  Internet access for learning and teaching the
  Virtual Training Suite
• Questions

4
The Foundations eLib

• Standards
• Technical infrastructure
• Managed collections of resources
• Improved interfaces and navigability
• Enhanced access and discovery
• Rich resource descriptions
• BrowsinggtHierarchical Browsinggt Searchinggt
• A touch of EEVL
• A hint of OMNI (science)
• A piece of SOSIG

5
Results

• (Green, 1997) Useful to particular user
  communities
• Subject focus welcomed
• Quality control of value
• (Mackie and Burton, 1999) Lack of awareness
  amongst academics, but where known met with
  enthusiasm
• End-users increasingly overwhelmed by results
  from search engines
• Need for further development, though concerns
  regarding significant cost

6
Birth of the RDN

• A federated structure
• 1) Networked organisation
• 2) Faculty based hubs
• 3) Centre developing, promoting, sustaining,
  supporting
• ensuring quality, consistency, interoperability,
  sharing of best practice, cost efficiency
• exploiting intrinsic interdisciplinary and
  cross-sectoral value
• business planning to sustain the network

7
Organisational overview
The Centre provides coordination, administration
and strategic direction for the hubs
HUMBUL
8
Joining up/Filling gaps

• Hubs - organisations, or a consortia of
• organisations - established around
• faculty level subjects
• BIOME - Biomedical and life sciences
• (led by Nottingham)
• EMC - Engineering, Maths and Computing (led by
  Heriott Watt)
• Humbul - Humanities (led by Oxford)
• PSIgate - Physical Sciences (led by CALIM)
• SOSIG - Social Sciences, Business, Law (led by
  Bristol, ILRT)

9
New areas to follow

• Creative Arts and Industries - consultancy
  completed by CALIM June, 2000
• Geography and Environment
• Education
• Other skills based subjects
• e.g. hospitality leisure management tourism etc

10
Building Partnerships

• Strategic collaboration on both a national and
• international scale is key to achieving our
• objectives - we will seek to work with
• National Grid for Learning The Peoples Network
  BBC Online British Library University for
  Industry LTSN Subject Centres GLTC British
  Council
• International partnerships e.g. Renardus IMesh
• Avoiding duplication, sharing best
• practise, facilitating joined-up growth

11
Building on the Foundations

• Meeting the demands of increasingly
• sophisticated and expectant users by
• Enhancing interoperability
• Developing collections and subject coverage which
  meet wider community needs
• Enhancing services to enable further
  customisation - rdn-include grapevine
  my-account

12
Distributed National Electronic Resource
RDN within the DNER

• A JISC policy aspiration to provide a managed and
  integrated information environment for learning
  and teaching
• An umbrella for informational activity
• An environment where information and learning
  converge

13
RDN Subject Portals

• RDN is central to the DNER and will
• Articulate a subject approach to network
  resources, providing subject portals geared to
  user interests, fusing and aggregating relevant
  content
• A series of rich entry points, enabling seamless
  access to a range of diverse resources
• Develop protocols, frameworks, commons
• standards

14
Sustaining the RDN

• Progressively reducing the cost of this activity
  to the JISC
• Business planning
• Funding
• common purpose organisations
• record sharing
• sponsorship
• subscription
• value-added/enhanced services

15
Mapping the WWWilderness
www.rdn.ac.uk
info_at_rdn.ac.uk