JISC

Welcome to the FAIR Synthesis microsite. The purpose of the site is to synthesise results of the JISC FAIR programme and present them for reference purposes.  Here you can find out what the programme overall has achieved and what the individual projects have done.  All the outputs listed are available through project websites directly or in the literature; this site aims to bring the tangible results of these projects together in one place.

The Focus on Access to Institutional Resources programme was inspired by the Open Archives Initiative and sought to make funding available to investigate the mechanisms and technologies required to enable the deposit and disclosure of digital materials. Specifically, it sought to examine how the increasing body of digital materials produced by Higher and Further Education institutions might be made more accessible to the wider community. Many institutional resources are either consigned to print publications or hidden across a multitude of computers within an institution, when they could be shared more effectively. The Open Archives Initiative has been found to be valuable, if possibly limited, in addressing this, whilst the place where resources are deposited, the repository, has come to the fore as a key part of the successful management and delivery of these resources. The FAIR projects have successfully investigated these issues and produced a large body of experience and outputs for dissemination and for others to make use of in subsequent work. 

You can browse the site in different ways. Each of the projects has its own page, and the outputs can also be explored by theme. Throughout the site there are links to project outputs available on the web. Additionally, a list of ongoing work that has emerged from FAIR projects already is available, as well as a glossary explaining the acronyms used within these pages.

Theme	Project
Types of repositories	Accessing the Virtual Museum
Cultural issues	BioMed Image Archive
Advocacy materials	DAEDALUS
Exploring user needs	Electronic Theses
Legal issues	ePrints UK
Repository and related software	FAIR Enough
Repository management and practice	HaIRST
Developing new tools	Harvesting the Fitzwilliam
Design and technical issues	Hybrid Archives
Metadata	PORTAL
	RoMEO
	SHERPA
	TARDis
	Theses Alive!

The site will be of interest to projects or institutions developing their own repositories. It should be of particular interest to institutions working within the JISC Digital Repositories programme and similar initiatives. As projects complete their work the site will be updated to include the latest outputs. 

A printed brochure addressing the key issues that have emerged from the FAIR programme is being produced for wide circulation to the community, and will complement this website.