Collaboration Projects
The Link Affiliates team through the different projects as shown below regularly collaborate with education and research experts:
Learning Object Repository Network (LORN)
2004 -
LORN is a portal that allows teachers and trainers to access online resources for the vocational education and training (VET) sector. From a technical perspective, LORN federates distributed learning content repositories using a metadata registry.
LORN has been developed by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) through a series of projects that began in 2004.
Link Affiliates team members have participated in the LORN project reference group since 2004, providing advice on interoperability standards, other repository federation projects and licencing.
Through the PILIN project***, Link Affiliates provided software and advice on trailing the use of persistent identifiers within LORN for the purposes of de-duplication in search results and tracking derivative works.
Members of the Australian e-Framework coordination team assisted the LORN project in creating a Service Usage Model that provides a services view of the LORN network.
Collaborative Online Learning and Information Services (COLIS) project - Phase One
2002 - 2003
COLIS was a standards-based functional test bed for the development of next generation collaborative online learning and information services. It included integration and substitutability testing of single sign-on access management, a learning object repository, a learning object management system, digital rights management, a federated search gateway and a learning management system.
Link Affiliates team members were part of the core team that designed and supported phase one of the project. They also provided business analysis and participated in the development of standards used in the demonstrator.
The Le@rning Federation (TLF)
2001 -
The Le@rning Federation develops free online curriculum content for all Australian and New Zealand schools and delivers it to educational jurisdictions. The project is a collaborative initiative of all Australian and New Zealand education ministers.
Link Affiliates members participated in the Learning Federation Consultative Committee in 2006 and 2007, providing advice on content standards and interoperability infrastructures.
Through the FRED and PILIN projects, Link Affiliates provided software and advice on an Appropriate Copy service using of persistent identifiers that helped solve some of TLF's content distribution problems.
Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (ARROW)
2003 - 2008
The ARROW project* was initiated as a national demonstrator project with two main objectives i.e. 'identify and test software to support best-practice institutional digital repositories at the ARROW Consortium member sites and develop and test a national resource discovery service using metadata harvested from the institutional repositories by the National Library of Australia' (ARROW website - 2008).
A committed approach by the ARROW Consortium and the PILIN Project team has led to the successful development of useful tools and interoperability solutions. Current collaborative research is focusing on the crucial requirement of persistent identifiers for digital objects and universal interoperable architectural solutions.
Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR)
2004 - 2007
The APSR project* was a partnership of four universities, APAC and the National Library of Australia pledged to instantiate best practices for sustainable digital formats. In pursuing this aim, APSR conducted a multitude of informative seminars, workshops and conferences, outreach and educational programs and provided Australian researchers with research information management including solutions to sustainability and repository issues.
The Link Affiliates team members participated in the events held as well as providing advice on new research methodologies.
Local Interlending and Document Delivery Administration Systems (LIDDAS)
1997 - 2003
The objectives of the LIDDAS Project were to develop specifications for the automation of interlibrary loans and pursue interoperability through resource discovery tools (portals and search engines, etc), and test these developments on behalf of the higher education sector. Increasing digital access saw a transformation in service and has facilitated research functionality for scholars.
*** Funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative (SII) as part of the Commonwealth Government's Backing Australia's Ability - An Innovation Action Plan for the Future (BAA)
