*Apologies for cross posting*
After five years the ARROW project (http://arrow.edu.au) is drawing to an
end. We want to share our achievements, and to thank those who have
played a role in it.
ARROW started with an idea – to build a new repository management solution
for Australian higher education, and to make the research material stored
in those repositories discoverable both nationally and internationally.
The aim was an information management tool that would bring wider exposure
to Australian research.
In late 2003 we were funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of
Education, Science and Training (DEST), under the banner of the Systemic
Infrastructure Initiative (SII), a part of Backing Australia’s Ability –
An Innovation Action Plan for the Future. The original consortium
comprised Monash University (lead institution), National Library of
Australia, the University of New South Wales, and Swinburne University of
Technology. In 2007 we were joined by the University of Southern
Queensland.
An innovative aspect of the project was to combine an open source platform
with a commercial search and management layer. ARROW worked with Fedora (
http://www.fedora.info/) and VTLS Inc. (http://www.vtls.com) to design and
develop the VITAL software (http://www.vtls.com/products/vital) and to
provide Open Source software for Fedora users (
http://code.google.com/p/vitalopensource/).
ARROW also funded a number of mini-projects. These led to the development
of centres of excellence in partner institutions, and new and enhanced
Open Source systems such as FABULOUS (University of South Australia -
http://code.google.com/p/fabulous/), The Fascinator (University of
Southern Queensland - http://ice.usq.edu.au/projects/fascinator/trac),
VALET (VTLS and the ARROW development team -
http://code.google.com/p/valet/), and the PROAI modifications (University
of NSW - http://sourceforge.net/projects/proaifedorasets/).
ARROW was always more than the software, however. The ARROW Community (
http://vitalusers.wikidot.com/) demonstrates a high level of engagement
and support between institutions. Also noteworthy is the metadata work
ARROW has supported nationally through MACAR (http://macar.wikidot.com/),
ARROW’s influence on government policy during this period and the National
Library of Australia’s National Discovery Service (
http://search.arrow.edu.au/).
Alongside the work of projects such as APSR (http://www.apsr.edu.au/),
RUBRIC (http://rubric.edu.au/) and MAMS (https://mams.melcoe.mq.edu.au/),
ARROW has given the Australian research community a platform, tools,
knowledge and advice on all aspects of managing digital research outputs.
The DART (http://dart.edu.au) and ARCHER (http://archer.edu.au) projects
grew out of ARROW. These projects resulted in the production of a number
of tools to help researchers manage their data. ARROW also provided a home
for PILIN (https://www.pilin.net.au/) and its work on infrastructure for
persistent identifiers. It was a pivotal foundation activity for the
establishment of the Australian National Data Service (http://ands.org.au
).
In the middle of 2008 ARROW negotiated an arrangement with CAUL to fund
them to establish a new service, to be known as CAIRSS (the CAUL
Australian Institutional Repository Support Service). CAIRSS will provide
support to all Australian university repositories, regardless of the
software being used. This will ensure that the Community is supported
for at least another two or three years, and will also provide an
opportunity for a new group of librarians to take a leadership role.
There are many people to thank for their roles and participation in this
project.
• The ARROW partners – Monash, UNSW, Swinburne, USQ and the NLA
• DEST and DIISR (Department of Innovation, Industry Science and
Research) – who supported the project, and whose staff worked with us to
make sure that the repositories would serve government reporting needs
• VTLS – who listened to our requirements and turned them into a
working system
• Fedora – whose work and interest in the ARROW project provided the
platform
• The Community – all those participants who built repositories,
participated in discussions and much more
• Other collaborators and advisors - too many to mention, both in
Australia and across the world.
• Most importantly, the small team of hard-working staff at ARROW
Central, both past and present, who have brought it all together.
With the hard work and creative thinking of everyone involved, that germ
of an idea has produced a working system. Thirteen Australian
institutions now have working repositories using the software (as do many
others around the world). Those repositories provide access to over
thirty thousand research objects. Through those repositories and the
National Discovery Service, Australia’s research is accessible to the
world in a way never before possible.
--
David Groenewegen
ARROW Project Manager
Monash University Library
Building 4
Monash University
Victoria 3800
AUSTRALIA
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