From a Summary via ACM TechNews:

European researchers are attempting to connect thousands of digital repositories into a massive network of easily searchable online data under the auspices of the DRIVER project. The researchers already have developed a search engine that regroups more than 1 million open access articles from 260 of Europe’s top institutions. The DRIVER system uses a suite of open source software known as D-NET, which lets users or institutions individually tailor their experience regardless of their location. D-NET enables users to collect together open access content from various institutional repositories and presents the content in a manner that is uniform and openly accessible. Institutional repositories also can employ the software to plug in and make their content available from DRIVER or any other implemented portals. Thus far the DRIVER project has set up a stable platform capable of accessing any type of text document, but the researchers will develop the system to access content from any media. “This is a project that will never end, because there will always be something else to do, or new standards and technologies will emerge that need to be added to D-NET,” says DRIVER coordinator Yannis Ionannidis. “We have achieved a milestone, but it is the first of many.”

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D-NET is really a pioneer. It allows users to collect together open access content from diverse institutional repositories and presents the content in a uniform and openly accessible way.

The software has been released under the Open Source Apache licence and is available at http://www.driver-repository.eu/Downloads. D-NET can be used by anybody who wishes to set up a similar portal providing services like the DRIVER search portal, for example national or thematic organisations starting their own initiatives.

Moreover, institutional repositories can use the software to plug in and allow their content to be accessible from DRIVER or any of the other deployed portals.

Source: ICT Results

See Also: Access the DRIVER Search Portal

Access the network of freely accessible digital repositories with content across academic disciplines with over 1,000,000 scientific publications, found in journal articles, dissertations, books, lectures, reports, etc., harvested regularly from more than 250 repositories, from 29 countries.

See Also: Access the DRIVER Repository Home Page

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 and is filed under Databases, Directories, and Guides, Scholarly Publishing, Technology and Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.