|
|
The long term vision behind this project is to develop in a coherent way, a national virtual research library system that will provide unmediated, personalised and seamless end user access to the collections and resources of Australian libraries and document delivery services (including commercial services) from work stations of research staff and students. To achieve this vision an organisational and technical framework is required, to manage the information environment in a consistent way so that all the key stakeholders involved (Library and IT staff, data providers and systems and software providers) have a common understanding of the necessary components and the standards for inter-connection.
The Pilot was conducted during 2001 / 2002. During the Pilot, portal software was reviewed, and some off-the-shelf software was purchased, installed and configured. This provided searching of and access to subscribed to and free information resources at point-of-need that was context-sensitive. Users were registered from 6 Universities geographically based across 4 states in Australia. Users were surveyed on their information-seeking habits, and were again surveyed after 5 months of using the pilot portal software. The project also explored administrative issues and frameworks to support a collaborative approach to building a portal infrastructure across academic libraries. The Pilot also explored technical issues, challenges and solutions related to the current and aimed-for functionalities.
Following the success of The Pilot, AARLIN received a further government grant of $2.8m for 2002-2004, to develop a framework that would facilitate the implementation of library portals across participant academic libraries throughout Australia.
This involves a four-pronged approach:
With the completion of the pilot, and the receipt of additional funding to underwrite the rollout of AARLIN as an operational system to Universities who wished to participate, an AARLIN Management Committee was appointed.
|
November 2001 - February 2002 |
Reviewed available software; created detailed tender document |
|
February 2002 |
Released tender document to potential suppliers |
|
April 2002 |
Tender responses received, and vendor presentations reviewed and prioritised. |
|
June 2002 |
Short listed to 2 vendors |
|
July 2002 |
Further evaluation of the products of the 2 vendors |
|
August 2002 - December 2002 |
Discussions and exploration provisionally focused on a preferred supplier |
|
December 2002 |
Contract signed with ExLibris, for Metalib and SFX products. |
|
January - February 2003 |
Hardware and Software to be acquired and initially configured. |
|
March - April 2003 |
Train, and co-ordinate support and development for, staff from GROUP 1 [6 university libraries in Victoria and the A.C.T] |
|
June 2003 |
Train, and co-ordinate support and development for, staff from GROUP 2 [5 university libraries in South Australia and Western Australia] |
|
July - August 2003 |
Train, and co-ordinate support and development for, staff from GROUP 3 [6 university libraries in Queensland, N.S.W, Northern Territory and Tasmania] |
|
October - November 2003 |
Train, and co-ordinate support and development for, staff from GROUP 4 [3 university libraries in Victoria and 1 N.S.W] |
|
July 2003 onwards |
Rollout additional portal functionality to sites, as developed |
|
January - June 2004 |
4 institutions (including La Trobe University) were identified to pilot undergraduate access to the AARLIN system. |
|
February 2004 onwards |
Soft launch of AARLIN system by participating universities. Assistance in the integrating the AARLIN authentication program with the LDAP or other directory systems of participating universities. |
|
2004 |
Further on site assistance if necessary. |
May 2004 |
First soft launches of an AARLIN Library portal commences at an La Trobe University. |
June 2004 |
|
July 2004 |
Swinburne University launches their Library portal preview to staff and undergraduate students |
August 2004 |
University of New England launches MetaSearch to staff and undergraduate students Edith Cowan University launches AARLIN@ECU Pilot Project James Cook University launches Xsearch to staff and undergraduate students |
September 2004 |
La Trobe University launches AARLIN project portal to their undergraduate students |
September 2004 |
Installation of Metalib Version 3 |
|
October - November 2004 |
Pilot project to test the stability of the SFX server by encouraging a limited number of institutions to use SFX sources other than Metalib. |
|
January - July 2004 |
AARLIN Business plan prepared. |
|
January - December 2004 |
Assistance in configuring resources by establishing the AARLIN Quality team. |
A number of the institutions who have launched their AARLIN Library portal have placed a feedback survey form on their website to gather users experiences and opinions. Here are some of the comments received at La Trobe University about their AARLIN Library portal.
The aim of the project is to provide university staff and students with seamless access to the information resources required to support research, and to develop an academic libraries network to enhance resource-sharing among Australian university libraries.
The project is significant because it will allow researchers to access a wide range of Australian and overseas information resources from their desktop computers, and to create their own approach to the information landscape.
The outcome includes a customisable portal environment which facilitates unmediated access to library services and resources including catalogues, inter-library loans, subject gateways, distributed library collections, journal, books, databases and fulltext and image resources.