Australian Research Information Infrastructure Projects: The Perspective of the National Library of Australia Warwick Cathro Assistant Director-General, Innovation National Library of Australia In Australia, the federal government has funded four projects aimed at assisting universities in establishing a robust environment for managing their research information. The development of "institutional repositories" is seen as a key strategy for achieving this goal. The funded projects will (a) test and evaluate particular software solutions for institutional research repositories, (b) develop a national discovery service for the content of the research repositories, (c) develop a national service to assist institutions with the curation and sustainability of these collections, and (d) develop a national infrastructure for authentication and authorization services which manage access to the collections. The National Library of Australia is a partner in three of the funded projects, and this project briefing will describe the projects from the Library's perspective. The Library will assist the projects by contributing its expertise and recent experience with the development of its own digital services architecture, including its experience with digital collection management systems, digital preservation, persistent identifiers, and the operation of national resource discovery services. The Library will also contribute its expertise in standards relating to authentication and authorization, and in particular, its experience with standards for descriptions of access policies. These projects provide an opportunity for Australia to take a highly collaborative, national approach to the development both of institutional repositories and of the support services that are needed for their effective deployment. Web Links: http://www.dest.gov.au/Ministers/Media/McGauran/2003/10/mcg002221003.asp http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/research/sys_research.htm http://www.arrow.edu.au/ http://sts.anu.edu.au/drs/repositories/ http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2003/cathro1.html Handout: The National Library's Role in the Australian Research Information Infrastructure Projects Presentation: Australian Research Information Infrastructure Projects (PPT)