Outcomes of the OARiNZ Project

1. Establishment of a National Network of Institutional Repositories
2. Support for individual institutional initiatives
3. Adoption of a "common road map"

Establishment of a National Network of Institutional Repositories

The project group will collaborate with appropriate institutions and authorities (including the National Library) to build the actual infrastructure necessary to connect all research repositories that meet standards for interoperability and access. Up to the minute technologies and approaches will be used to ensure that the resulting network is usable, robust, sustainable, extendable, and flexible. It is important to emphasise from the outset that the complexity of this component of the project should not be underestimated. In order for the network to function to its full potential (and attract significant stakeholder buy-in) it must offer the broadest range of services and functions possible. The opportunity exists to develop the middleware for New Zealand's national repository network according to emerging international best practice - and that is what the OARiNZ project is intending to do.

The architecture being suggested is a distributed one, allowing for both autonomy and stewardship. It will make provision for both proprietary and open source systems and solutions providing they are compliant and/or compatible with universal standards and protocols such as OAI-PMH, SOAP, SRU/SRW, and UDDI.

The project group will use its extensive networks to work alongside and/or with reference to appropriate national and international initiatives and strategies (e.g. the Digital Strategy, TES, Matapihi, the interim Tertiary (e)Learning Framework, the JISC e-Framework for Education and Research , related eCDF projects - OSVLE, OSLOR etc).

Even though this aspect of the OARiNZ project might appear to focus on technical infrastructure, the starting point is the end user (whether they be contributors, researchers, administrators, managers, or developers), for whom we are looking to create a seamless, coherent, managed digital environment.

Support for Individual Institutional Initiatives

While research repository capability in New Zealand is arguably building - particularly in the University sector, there is a need to support this process more comprehensively by providing resources and targeted support, lowering "barriers to entry", and increasing knowledge-sharing. The OARiNZ project will;

• create exemplars (e.g. assist institutions to develop repositories to use as reference models)
• develop a bureau/hosting service using open source technology. [This approach has had demonstrable success with LMS infrastructure using Moodle. Eight TEOs now use a shared education web farm to support mission critical e-learning infrastructure.]
• compile a 'DIY' or self-configuring solution for institutions wanting to set up and host their own repository
• encourage institutions with existing research repositories to collaborate
• The implementation of the approaches identified will assist with building capability and confidence, and help "prove the concept" of a flexible national network infrastructure.

While the focus of the OARiNZ project support will be TEOs, there is a need for this to widen in the future to include, for example, the Government sector and CRIs.

Adoption of a "Common Road Map"

In the absence of a legislated pathway, there is no assurance that institutions with shareable repositories will connect to a New Zealand network. The OARiNZ project has however made provision for the 'buy in' aspects of the endeavour, and has identified a number of guiding principles:

• benefits will be clearly articulated
• 'appropriate' people will be involved
• transparency during the various phases of the project implementation will be established
• any systems and processes will be 'user friendly'
• barriers to entry will be minimised
• information will be clear, sufficient, accessible and disseminated widely
• stakeholders will be involved in developing a strategy for ongoing management and maintenance of the network.

In order to encourage 'uptake' and assist with decision-making at the institutional level, a series of regional seminars and visits will be undertaken. We will create a web-based, New Zealand-specific repository implementation and operations guide, to record and share existing knowledge and foster local repository communities.

Objectives of the OARiNZ Project

The following are the project objectives as outlined in the OARiNZ proposal. Progress reports will be posted online regularly throughout the year.

Objective 1: Design the Infrastructure Blueprint
Objective 2: Conduct a Technical Evaluation of Open Source Repository Solutions
Objective 3: Build the Framework
Objective 4: Develop Reference Models
Objective 5: Build a New Zealand Research Repository managed service
Objective 6: Enhance the Research Repository managed service
Objective 7: Produce a 'DIY' Solution
Objective 8: Build the Knowledge Base
Objective 9: Engage the Stakeholders
Objective 10: Plan for the Future