JISC

The aims of the Resource Discovery Taskforce Vision are to provide an infrastructure for D2D services, provide opportunities for institutions to openly share their metadata, support collection management processes and reduce duplication of effort, and enhance visibility and use of collections. In order to achieve these aims, it will be necessary to open up metadata about institutional collections; provide clarity over licensing, especially around opening up data for reuse, ensure a sustainable infrastructure is created; and develop core standards for metadata.

Mimas proposes a management framework for this activity that will operate as a change programme. We draw from the principles of MSP (Managing Successful Programmes) which can be implemented to deliver change across complex environments and multiple organisations. Our approach is designed to accommodate high levels of ambiguity, complexity, and risk: Realising the Vision will mean changes in technological approach and business-as-usual for individual institutions and service providers, but there will also be a shift in ethos, the most crucial being the embracement of ‘Openness.’

The focus of the Vision is on aggregations and exploiting the strengths current infrastructures, making data ‘work harder.’ But the Vision can only be truly realised if a ‘mixed economy’ of technological solutions and approaches are taken forward. We will adhere to the principle of ‘data in, data out.’ Aggregation must not be seen as an end in itself, a service in its own right. Attention will be paid to creating an infrastructure that enables a broad range of activity, especially innovation. The work around licensing and ‘Open Data’ advocacy must contribute to an outcome where more metadata is made openly available through a variety of mechanisms, not limited to ‘centralised’ aggregation.
This work must be undertaken as a collective effort with a range of key stakeholder partners, with collective ownership of the benefits the Vision will deliver, as well responsibility for advocacy, persuasion, and risk management. Establishing the technical requirements for the infrastructure will be a major hurdle, but understanding the requirements of the different domains and gaining buy-in will be the most significant challenge. We will deploy MSP tools for developing strategies for stakeholder engagement, risk management, and benefits realisations.

For more information please see the project website: http://rdtf.mimas.ac.uk