Digital Information Repositories
From Regional Knowledge Resource Kit
A digital repository of information is a collection of digital items consisting of data (can be spatial data, bibliographic references and/or identifiers) accessible via a network such as the Web.
Examples of natural resource management information stores or repositories include:
Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources Online database.
Agriculture and Natural Resources Online (AANRO) is a knowledge base for agriculture and natural resources. Contains descriptions of research projects and publications and a gateway to relevant resources.
National Land & Water Resources Audit
The National Land & Water Resources Audit is a government agency funded by the Natural Heritage Trust to work with the Australian Government and all states and territories, to report on the condition of Australia's land, water and biological resources. The Audit collates data and information, and contextual social and economic information, on the status of Australia's natural resources. The Audit provides spatial data through the Australian Natural Resources Atlas and the Australian Natural Resources Data Library.
National Data Network (NDN)
(http://www.nationaldatanetwork.org/ndn/ndnhome.nsf/Home/Home) The National Data Network (NDN) is a national platform for acquiring, sharing, and integrating data relevant to policy and research in Australia. The NDN provides a distributed library of data holdings relevant to and supporting efficient access to data for policy analysis and research. These data holdings remain held and controlled by their Custodian organisations. Whilst data is held by each Custodian, the National Data Network provides a complete catalogue of available data sources to allow users to easily search for, and access data holdings which have been exposed. Researchers and policy analysts can search the National Data Network through the web site. Once access conditions have been met, researchers will be provided access to data held on the custodian’s node.
Libraries Australia
Libraries Australia is a database containing information on what’s in the library collections of libraries all over Australia. It’s a public website you can search for information or references to find something, borrow it, copy it or buy it. See website http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/apps/kss
National Science Digital Library
The National Science Digital Library www.ndsl.org is a U.S. online library for education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. NSDL organizes information about a wide range of resources that are located across the Internet. Users can discover these materials through keyword searches or can browse topical and alphabetical lists of collections.
Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (ARROW)
The Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) has invested funds in the development of digital repositories of participating university academic e-prints, electronic theses, e-research and electronic publishing. The ARROW project www.arrow.edu.au will identify and test software or solutions to support best practice under the Research Information Infrastructure Framework for Australian Higher Education.
DEST has also funded a parallel development for regional universities (Regional Universities Building Research Infrastructure Collaboratively (RUBRIC) see www.rubric.edu.au)
Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories
The Australian Government has funded the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR) www.apsr.edu.au to work with research communities, information professionals, technical staff, and higher education policy makers on a series of development projects, surveys, publications, seminars, and training workshops. The Partnership aims to help create the systems required for managing data and information in a research environment and simultaneously to increase the capability of Australian researchers to do so.
