About

Overview

PerX is a two-year (June 2005 – May 2007) JISC Digital Repositories Programme project, to develop a pilot service which provides subject resource discovery across a series of repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research community. This pilot will then be used as a test-bed to explore the practical issues that would be encountered when considering the possibility of a full scale subject resource discovery service.

The PerX Toolkit technical architecture includes a set of Open Source software applications and loosely coupled software modules and libraries implemented using protocols for searching and harvesting distributed digital repositories as well as open standards that support the discovery and the cross searching of searchable databases.

Project Outputs

• A pilot subject-based resource discovery service in engineering.
• Knowledge of end-user opinion on usefulness of a subject-based approach.
• Advocacy materials to encourage exposure of new repositories.
• Analysis of usage of shared services (e.g. IESR and Resolver services).
• Analysis of setup and maintenance issues.
• Demonstration of metadata quality augmentation.
• Demonstration of resource discovery functionality within a VLE.
• Studies investigating improvement of search and browse filtering techniques.
• Reports to help scope the future development of subject-based components of a digital repository landscape.

Project Outcomes

• Pilot service and knowledge gained from testing it will assist anyone planning or implementing a cross-search service of digital repositories.
• Identification of end-user opinion on the usefulness of a subject-based resource discovery service will help those making policy decisions about service development.
• Advocacy materials will be of use to anyone wanting to understand or explain the benefits of enabling resource discovery via multiple repositories.
• Identification of setup and maintenance issues will help clarify the ongoing costs of potential cross-searching services.
• New repository services which are added to the pilot will potentially be available to be added to publicly available services, thus increasing availability and use of materials within those repositories.
• Those wishing to embed resource discovery services within a VLE will be able to benefit from the experience of the pilot.
• Analysis of sustainability issues will help inform future decisions with respect to service development.

Project Documents

• Project Proposal [pdf 108Kb]
• Project Plan [Available on request. email Roddy MacLeod]
• Project Minutes [Private]
• Project Deliverables

Partners

• Institute for Computer Based Learning at Heriot-Watt University (lead)
• Cranfield University
• Institution of Civil Engineers/Thomas Telford Ltd
• Adiuri Systems Ltd
• Geotechnical, Rock and Water Resources Library
• Regional Support Centre East Midlands

Staff

Project Director, Project Manager, Project Officer, Technical Officer