...From the start, the vision for repositories was that of easy self-deposit by resource authors, and widely available access to as many educators as possible....However, the reality to date has been somewhat at odds with this vision, due to, for example, requirements for good quality metadata....The labyrinth of barriers, some of which need good technical or usability solutions, some of which require cultural shifts, and some of which demand courageous decisions from funders and managers to side-step, have given many potential contributors to repositories too much of a headache to fully participate....
[A]mongst many efforts to overcome the multitude of barriers to use of repositories, in 2006 the first JISC Repositories Programme, along with JISC CETIS and UKOLN (in the form of the original Repositories Research Team), identified enabling remote and bulk deposit as a work item that could make a huge difference for all kinds of repositories. Agreeing an open protocol that could be supported by the major repository systems, and used by anyone creating tools and widgets for deposit, became a top priority, and SWORD was funded....
This article gives an introduction to SWORD from an educational technology perspective; most other resources on SWORD focus on research outputs repositories.....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/03/2009 11:04:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
