JISC

The EuroStudies Project seeks to augment the present RDN structure through an expanded SOSIG interface to provide subject access to learning resources in European Studies. Through a high-level entry point it will provide access to an extended range of related sites, resources and services covering the whole of Europe. It will offer access to subject resources by enhancing and furthering existing SOSIG coverage.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the EuroStudies Project is to provide targeted access to subject-related resources on important and well-defined areas of European study. Though in the main the coverage will be social sciences oriented we would have regard to related materials in the humanities, geography and the environment.

Within the contextual basis there will be dedicated coverage for all European countries, including the Russian Federation and other European countries of the former Soviet Union. Any supra-national European organisations that have been created to govern, administer, defend and facilitate co-operation across these nation states will also be included in the coverage. We will ensure however that there will be no duplication of coverage of the EU and its institutions where this already exists through RDN supported services.

Key deliverables

• Working through SOSIG to provide a virtual focus and in-depth coverage for European Studies
• Using the existing ROADS software to provide profiling services to enable users to define a profile thereby enabling the portal to support them in their specific activities.
• Providing collection discovery services based on collection descriptions provided by authorised contributors within the SOSIG environment
• Providing access to European web resources in social sciences but having regard to other subject resources in the humanities, geography and the environment.
• Providing as comprehensive a coverage as possible to European security issues and organisations, in conjunction with existing RDN services.

Project Consortium

The two partners in the project are SOSIG at the University of Bristol and Information Services at the University of Birmingham. This project takes full advantage of the existing SOSIG Hub structure in the RDN and so benefits from a proven distributed model of working and ensuring that any developments are complementary to wider RDN developments. The University of Birmingham is responsible for the management of the content and structure of the EuroStudies Gateway.