Pilot subject-based repository search tool now available
A pilot service providing subject resource discovery across a variety of digital repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research communities has been released by the Jisc–funded PerX project.
Although the repositories included in the pilot are relevant to engineering, the cross-searching methods and interface used, plus the range of repository types included, should be of interest to many as a demonstrator of one method of resource discovery across multiple digital repositories.
Twenty-eight repositories are currently cross-searched by the pilot whose basic search interface and advanced search interface enable cross-searching of the repositories, and allow filtering by resource type: articles, theses and dissertations, technical reports, books, learning and teaching resources, key websites, industry news and new job announcements. Overall, more than 1.5 million resources are cross-searched by the pilot service.
Access to the full text of items found is available from many of the repositories. In a few cases, the full items consist of details of books, articles, learning objects or websites, and in some others the full text may be available to subscribing institutions or by pay-per-view.
An important purpose of the PerX pilot is to help scope a possible future cross-search service. With this in mind, feedback on the Pilot would be much appreciated by project staff. A 60 second survey is available and those providing feedback will be entered into a draw to win £100 of Amazon vouchers.
PerX is one of the projects in the Jisc Digital Repositories programme
For further details, please go to PerX