[eIFLoa] The first African repository was exposed to the global research community today in the DRIVER Research Infrastructure

[Iryna Kuchma]

Dear colleagues,

Boloka, the Research Repository of the North-West University in South Africa
was exposed to the global research community today in the DRIVER Research
Infrastructure (please read below). Congratulations to the repository team
at NWU!

We encourage repository managers to register your repository with DRIVER, so
that its contents are harvested periodically, indexed into the DRIVER
platform and presented in the DRIVER European Repository search portal. In
this way, publicly funded research deposited in your repository can achieve
wider distribution - to be read, used and cited more widely by the global
research community.

Repositories successfully harvested by DRIVER are entitled to display the
DRIVER logo on their library website, to certify quality and global
networked status of their content.

More information:
http://validator.driver.research-infrastructures.eu/validatorWeb/

With best wishes,
Iryna.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peters, Dale <peters at sub.uni-goettingen.de>
Date: 12 серп. 2009 17:39
Subject: Boloka goes global
To: irspace at kendy.up.ac.za, disa at lists.ukzn.ac.za
Cc: Iryna Kuchma <iryna.kuchma at eifl.net>, Louw Venter <Louw.Venter at nwu.ac.za
>

Boloka, the Research Repository of the North-West University in South Africa
was  exposed to the global research community today in the  *DRIVER Research
Infrastructure* <http://www.driver-community.eu/>.

As the  first African repository to go global, the contents of Boloka, which
means to store, to keep safe, or to preserve,  can now be searched in
conjunction with over 1 million other research papers harvested by DRIVER
and made openly accessible through Open Access institutional repositories.

The repository comprises  electronic theses,  an Open Access journal
(*Potchefstroom
Electronic Law Journal*) as well as the research output of the University of
the North West, and periodic  harvesting will capture incremental
growth. As many OAI repositories contain restricted content, DRIVER
harvests only those repositories that voluntarily register for prior
validation and confirmation of data quality.  To assist in improving data
standards, and ultimately ensuring the interoperability of data in
global information
spaces, DRIVER provides support for repository managers in online *Guidelines
for Content Providers* <http://www.driver-support.eu/managers.html>.
  Boloko was validated and registered smoothly, which speaks highly of the
interoperability standards achieved.

Congratulations are due to repository manager, Louw Venter, and his team at
NWU .  Louw says: " This has been a tough road for us so far having to
figure out a lot of things on our own, so we are also very proud of what
we've achieved, in what I think is a relatively short time. Initially I just
used the Validation tool to see if our repository is more or less on track
and was reassured when the results looked good, which gave me confidence to
register."

Repository managers are invited to validate their own repository and
register with confidence in the knowledge that the research papers of your
 researchers can enjoy full exposure to their respective disciplines and
subject communities.

To find out more, visit the Driver website: Register your Repository:  *
http://validator.driver.research-infrastructures.eu/validatorWeb/*<http://validator.driver.research-infrastructures.eu/validatorWeb/>

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Dr D Peters

Scientific Technical Manager DRIVER II

State and University Library of Goettingen

peters at sub.uni-goettingen.de

Tel:  +49 551 39 5242

Fax: +49 551 39 5222

Mobile:+49 (0)160 989 67663

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http://www.driver-repository.eu/

http://www.driver-support.eu/en/

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