In 2001 the Australian Government released Backing Australia’s Ability an innovation action plan for the future1. The strategy embodied the Government’s commitment to:
strengthen Australia’s ability to generate ideas and undertake research;
accelerate the commercial application of these ideas; and
develop and retain Australian skills.
Improvement of research infrastructure involving equipment, libraries and other facilities2 was identified as important to the achievement of these objectives and funding was provided to support relevant initiatives.
Significant impetus for improvement of the research infrastructure was derived from a report by the Chief Scientist – The Chance to Change3. This report recognised the difficulty of maintaining the national research infrastructure and of providing support comparable to that available in peer countries4. Particular attention was drawn to the difficulties faced by research libraries and their contribution to the information infrastructure utilised by research.5
As a consequence of Backing Australia’s Ability and The Chance to Change, the Government established the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative to fund the upgrade of facilities meeting the demonstrated systemic needs of the higher education research community. A strategic approach was adopted to the allocation of funding from the Initiative for 2003. Priorities were identified which related to the development of bandwidth capacity and support for the information infrastructure.6 Advice on future development of these areas was sought from the Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee and the Higher Education Bandwidth Advisory Committee.7
The Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee submitted its report8 in November 2002. The report identified improved access to, and dissemination of, Australian research resources as a priority for systemic funding. The Committee also identified further systemic development of access to international research resources as a priority if Australian scholars are to be competitive with their peers internationally.
1. http://www.austms.org.au/Jobs/backing_Aust_ability.pdf 
and http://backingaus.innovation.gov.au
2. Backing Australia’s Ability. an innovation action plan for the future. Commonwealth of Australia, 2001. p 16
3. http://www.dest.gov.au/ChiefScientist/Reports/Chance_To_Change/Documents/ChanceFinal.pdf
4. The Chance to Change. Commonwealth of Australia. 2000. p59
5. op.cit. p68
6. http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/research/sys_research.htm
7. http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/research/sys_aren_default.htm
8. http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/otherpub/heiiac/exec_summary.htm
A principal strategic goal identified by the Committee concerned the provision of a more robust environment in which Australian research information could be managed irrespective of its format. Throughout its deliberations, the Committee stressed the importance of Australian developments conforming to, and assisting the development of, international standards.
The report recommended support for twelve projects associated with:
- resource discovery
- information repositories
- electronic publication
- access management
These projects coincide with work being undertaken internationally particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The Committee supported international collaboration as a means of maximising the effectiveness of investment in the projects by not duplicating efforts and being able to take advantage of knowledge exchanges. In return, there are opportunities for Australia to provide a national testbed for technology and methods in ways which may not be possible elsewhere.
Since the submission of the HEIIAC report, some significant changes have occurred internationally in the way in which responses to scholarly communication challenges might be addressed. These changes particularly affect responses which relate to the involvement of universities in the storage, dissemination and publication of scholarly information including electronic publishing, repositories, digital theses, non-bibliographic data, resource discovery as well as access management.
The Higher Education Information Infrastructure Steering Committee recommends the adoption of a revised approach to information infrastructure projects as outlined in this report. The Steering Committee also recommends draft terms of reference for the proposed Higher Education Information Infrastructure Implementation Advisory Committee.
The Higher Education Information Infrastructure Implementation Steering Committee was established in March 2003 by the then Minister for Education, Science and Training to provide advice on the recommendations contained in the report of the Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee. The Steering Committee has reviewed the recommendations taking into account developments which have occurred internationally and makes the following observations and recommendations in line with its Terms of Reference (Appendix A):
1. Long Term Vision for Higher Education Information Infrastructure
The development of a long term vision requires extensive consultation with the scholarly and research community. The development of a vision would be better undertaken by the proposed Implementation Advisory Committee and should be a key function of its terms of reference.
Recommendation 1
that the further refinement of a long term vision of a national research information infrastructure for Australian higher education be undertaken by the Implementation Advisory Committee.
2. Advise on the Terms of Reference of the Implementation Advisory Committee
Members of the Steering Committee recognise the excellent contribution made to the national information infrastructure by universities working individually or in collaboration both within the sector and with other agencies such as the National Library of Australia, CSIRO and other research organisations. The cumulative effect of infrastructure projects supported by the Australian Research Council and DEST has been significant and of long-term benefit.
To maintain and extend the effectiveness of the research information infrastructure, it is desirable that a more strategic approach be taken to the utilisation of resources available nationally. This approach should foster and support collaboration at a national level by encouraging key stakeholders to work together.
Recommendation 2
that the terms of reference for the Higher Education Information Infrastructure Implementation Advisory Committee empower the Committee to:
- Advise the Government on :
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the information infrastructure requirements of the Australian higher education sector and their intersection with the wider information and technical infrastructures utilised by the scholarly and research community
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the identification, funding and implementation of projects which contribute to the systemic development of information infrastructure resources for higher education
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collaboration with national and international agencies and partners
- Outline and refine a long term vision for the development of a coherent information infrastructure for Australian higher education
- Conduct a consultative process of key stakeholders to identify and analyse gaps in information infrastructure.
- Commission investigation into issues which will inform decision making by the Committee.
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3. Advise on the Composition of the Implementation Advisory Committee
The Steering Committee recognised the need for broad consultation and commitment to the development of a national information infrastructure for higher education. It also recognised the value of a committee which effectively represents major stakeholder groups.
Recommendation 3
that the Implementation Advisory Committee be comprised of experts nominated by each of the following stakeholder groups:
- Australian Research Council
- Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee
- Council of Australian University Directors of IT
- Council of Australian University Librarians
- National Academies Forum
- National Library of Australia
In addition, the Committee membership should include:
- chairperson appointed by the Minister for Education, Science and Training
- IT standards expert
- Project Director
- representatives of DEST
- additional members co-opted by the Committee as required to provide expert advice
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4. Recommend a Framework linking the HEIIAC Projects
The project proposals that have come to HEIIAC separate into three natural groupings:
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Development of new information infrastructure to support Australian researchers;
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Provision of access by Australian researchers to resources that are currently available; and
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Exploration of options to provide stable, low-cost capacity to store rarely-used but significant bibliographic research materials.
4.1 New Information Infrastructure
The provision of information infrastructure to support world-class research in Australia is complex and continually evolving to accommodate variables including emerging technologies and changes in research practices, theory and priorities. It is important to recognise that, insofar as the infrastructure components are installed within higher education institutions, they may also support teaching, learning and administrative purposes with significant efficiencies of scale.
Research information infrastructure comprises several elements:
- Facilities such as disk files, computers and wide-band networks that store, process and distribute research data and information;
- Information management systems that overlay descriptive structure onto raw data created as part of investigative processes, unpublished research findings, print or digital publications, images and audio resources, and which control the replication and archiving of the data; and
- Services that create, publish, disseminate, discover and control access to research information, including the protection of intellectual and other property rights.
The Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee (HEIIAC) has identified a cluster of proposals that address elements 2 and 3 of the above list; while element 1 is addressed by other activities within DEST’s Systemic Infrastructure Initiative. HEIIAC appreciates that careful co-ordination of initiatives with all three elements has much to offer researchers in Australia and accordingly has adopted a single framework to consider the cluster of proposals in elements 2 and 3. The framework has three major themes:
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creation and management of Australian research information;
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access to information resources created in Australia and overseas; and
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discovery and dissemination of information to Australian researchers.
This framework is consistent with similar constructs developed by the Joint Information Systems Committee in the United Kingdom, Coalition for Networked Information in the United States and the National Library of Australia. It has provided HEIIAC a coherent structure into which the twelve projects proposed previously for systemic funding were placed, and also offers a coherent approach to identifying gaps and opportunities for other development including the large and unmet needs for non-bibliographic information infrastructure to manage non-text materials and scientific databases.
The framework supports a conceptualisation of projects currently under consideration in terms of the creation, management, discovery and dissemination of Australian research information through e-Print repositories, the publication of digital theses, and e-Publishing initiatives. Common to each of these areas are proposals to develop and implement new and powerful research information discovery mechanisms and organisational methodologies such as subject portals and gateways, and the pressing problems associated with access authorisation and billing systems. Seen in this light, the proposals have much in common with issues relating to the provision of scientific data sets for Australian researchers.
There are two converging trends that suggest a clear way ahead for the development of Australian Research Information Infrastructure:
a. the implementation and support of Institutional Repositories, and
b. integration with Grid architectures and technologies.9
Institutional repositories
Dr Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the US-based Coalition for Networked Information, recently reviewed work being undertaken internationally and synthesised current thinking on likely future directions. He identified the commonalities associated with activities such as e-publishing, repositories and resource discovery.10 Although these activities are inter-related, hitherto they have been approached generally as separate endeavours with specific objectives which were often at variance.
9. http://umbriel.dcs.gla.ac.uk/NeSC/general
10. http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/index.html
The likely future envisioned by Lynch and others includes a central role for institutional repositories of the knowledge and information created by the members of that institution. Lynch’s conception sees the repositories being sited within the Higher Education Institutions themselves, with the institutions accepting long-term custodial responsibility for the research information created by their members.
The model can be extended to repositories that are populated by information and knowledge created by Higher Education researchers, but managed by other institutions that accept the custodial responsibility. In this case, each Higher Education Institution requires facilities to submit and access the deposited information. There is capacity for these endeavours to build upon work already undertaken nationally by projects such as the Australian Digital Theses programme, COLIS (Collaborative Online Learning and Information Service),11 PictureAustralia12 and AARLIN (Australian Academic Research Libraries Information Network).13 Internationally, projects such as Shibboleth,14 Open Archive Initiative,15 Dspace16 and California Digital Library17 each has the capacity to contribute to the proposed Australian projects.
11. http://www.colis.mq.edu.au
12. http://www.pictureaustralia.org 
13. http://www.latrobe.edu.au
14. http://shibboleth.internet2.edu
15. http://www.openarchives.org
16. http://www.dspace.org
17. http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship
Grid Architectures and Technologies
Grid computing is an important new technology that supports the conduct of geographically and institutionally distributed research projects, particularly those that are highly complex and multidisciplinary in the sciences and social sciences. Gaining access to huge data collections that are being assembled and curated by many disciplines is a major driver of Grid developments. New methods are needed to deal with the fact that the data sets cannot be replicated owing to their great size or other properties, raising important issues of remote access and distributed discovery technologies.
Managing data within a grid computing environment requires access to distributed, heterogeneous data residing in different administrative domains, characterised by heterogeneous formats and semantics. Grid data applications operate over a wide variety of repositories, including file systems, proprietary database systems, web sites, scientific databases, and document management systems. A major challenge for Grid data systems is to integrate and federate disparate data into coherent collections.
The Way Ahead
The development of Australian research information infrastructure over the next few years is likely to be based on an approach that draws on, and then locally contextualises, overseas developments. There appears to be little risk in a strategy that foresees the convergence of architectures and applications relating to institutional repositories, discovery services and the use of Grid technologies. An Australian approach along these lines will provide a framework for addressing issues associated with:
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establishing and maintaining the physical infrastructure of repositories;
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repository content management;
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archiving and provenance management;
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technology migration;
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access, use and training; and
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digital rights management
that are common to all of the access and dissemination projects identified in the Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee’s report. They need to be perceived as parts of a coherent solution if unnecessary duplication of effort and resources is to be avoided.
Such an approach would contribute to the achievement of the vision embodied in Backing Australia’s Ability particularly the promotion of Australian research outcomes. To be successful, it will require calculated risktaking, an ability to think beyond the traditional and to envision a potentially quite different future in which institutions take a more dynamic role in the management, organisation and preservation of the intellectual property produced by their communities. It may not be necessary for each institution to establish the necessary mechanisms but they will be expected to support such facilities which may be provided in collaboration with other universities, learned societies or other research institutions.
The functional architecture of the broader vision would include at least the following:
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a distributed network of repositories, often but not always in a Higher Education setting;
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a capacity to network more than one repository in each institution, and across institutions;
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highly configurable institutional access management to deal with multiple levels of confidentiality and exposure;
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metadata schemas and other descriptors to cover different categories of research material, consistent with international standards;
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agreement between institutions regarding application profiles that support interoperability and transparency for submission, maintenance and discovery purposes;
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provision of central harvested metadata repositories and/or federation capabilities for distributed data sets; and
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coordinated research information discovery service that develops in power as advances are made in computer-based ontologies and semantics.
Repositories developed within Higher Education Institution settings or within other reliable settings with appropriate access will assist Higher Education Institutions to achieve objectives related to the:
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protection and management of intellectual property on behalf of the individual and the institution;
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dissemination and publication of research information and knowledge;
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commercialisation of research outcomes; and
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recording and preserving a record of the endeavours of Higher Education scholarly communities.
Recommendation 4
That a common repository infrastructure approach for the management, discovery and dissemination of Australian research information be supported taking into account the potential application of Grid technologies. This would involve the following phases:
Phase 1
- conduct forum on institutional repositories;
- conduct forum on access management;
- negotiate and specify the purposes of managing Australian research information infrastructure within institutional repositories, and define the expected outcomes of the installation of such repositories;
- identify the various categories of research materials that would be deposited in institutional repositories, and their characteristics;
- develop functional specifications for institutional repositories within Higher Education and other stable settings;
- investigate approaches to repository management, including appropriate standards (such as IMS, OGSA) and software implementations (such as OpenArchive, DSpace, B-Press; OGSA-DAI);
- where necessary, develop new metadata schema for each type of material;
- investigate the relative values and feasibility of maintaining central and/or institutional repositories of harvested metadata;
- examine the need for central resource discovery mechanisms including subject gateways.
Phase 2
bring together the knowledge accumulated in Phase 1 to provide a general template available to universities and other Australian institutions intent on establishing institutional repositories.
Phase 3
- determine the nature, purpose and extent of demonstrator projects;
- test the templates using various types of materials by funding individual institutions;
- develop advocacy strategies; and
- develop training strategies.
Phase 4
- evaluate demonstrator projects;
- refine templates; and
- support wider implementation through funding assistance to eligible, participating institutions.
The expected outcomes of this approach should include:
- rollout of facilities that can cope with a range of data types and management approaches;
- templates and exemplars for institutions wishing to install and maintain multi-purpose repositories;
- a means of preserving digital knowledge resources;
- an approach that offers considerable advantages in terms of shared developments;
- opportunities for researchers to continue to exploit existing infrastructure including traditional publishing, with improved IT tools; and
- an open, flexible approach to provision of software and technology solutions.
4.2 Access to currently available resources
The Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee recognised the importance of Australian scholars having access to published research information including non-bibliographic data such as numerical datasets, images and audio resources. Consultation with key members of the research community indicated that universities were experiencing difficulty maintaining current subscriptions to the wide range of journals necessary to support comprehensive research programmes.
As the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative is unable to fund ongoing activities, the Committee sought to identify resources which had broad applicability for research and could be acquired outright. Two commercially available digital information products were identified as of high relevance to scholars in the sector.
Twenty eight universities subscribe to the ISI Web of Science and each has purchased varying portions of the archive file. The Committee recommended that the investment of universities be built upon by the acquisition of an additional 5 year archival file for each participating institution.
This project was initiated in March 2003 and took advantage of contractual negotiations conducted by the AVCC. In addition to the 28 existing subscribers to ISI, the project provided opportunities for other universities to subscribe at the discount negotiated by the AVCC and to receive backfiles as part of this initiative.
As a consequence of having systemic funding, it was possible to negotiate acquisition of the backfiles for a total of A$3.5 million against a list price of approximately A$ million.
While universities have invested heavily in digital resources which support the sciences, technology and health sciences, acquisition of electronic resources for humanities and social sciences has been less extensive. This has been due largely to fewer products being available.
Following consultation with key stakeholders in the research community, JSTOR was identified as a product which would be of systemic value. Further investigation of JSTOR and other appropriate products is continuing.
Recommendation 5
that CAUL be asked to continue negotiations with JSTOR, to investigate other appropriate products and to report to the HEIIAC by the end of July 2003.
4.3 Research Storage Facilities
In its original conception the collaborative storage for research publications project concerned the provision of facilities which would house any type of print publications. Whilst there remains a need for such a facility, it is likely to serve only a proportion of the universities. An approach which concentrated on the provision of storage for the print editions of major journals now available in digital format would have greater appeal to more universities.
This approach has been adopted by the Center for Research Libraries18 which has instigated a project to acquire a complete file of the print copies of journals available through JSTOR and to maintain them for archival purposes. The project complements the overall mission of CRL which is to "to foster and advance scholarly inquiry through cost-effective, cooperative programs that provide reliable access through traditional and electronic means to unique and unusual collections of library materials that are in all appropriate formats, international in scope, and comprehensive in disciplines."19
18. http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu
19. http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu
By developing an archival collection of the more than 300 titles in the JSTOR collection, CRL aims to:
- ensure preservation of at least one copy of each title
- provide an alternative to the digital version of each title
- enable institutions to dispose of print copies in order to utilise storage space on campus for other purposes
An Australian project could mirror the CRL project by restricting itself initially to the JSTOR tiles. This would complement the purchase of the JSTOR digital file with Systemic Infrastructure Initiative funds. As a second stage, the project could be extended to archive titles available in other digital collections such as those available from Elsevier, Springer, Blackwells and Wiley. There is opportunity also for the archive to hold copies of digitised Australian material.
Before further work is undertaken on the development of the collaborative storage facility, it will be necessary to gain community agreement to a set of operating protocols based on:
Purpose
The facility is an integral part of the national information infrastructure which supports Australian higher education. It seeks to provide central storage for print journals which have continuing research significance and which are available in digital formats.
Aims
The facility takes account of, and complements, other segments of the information infrastructure and by restricting the type and nature of items stored, it will enable:
- individual libraries to discard duplicates of items held in the store and re-use space for other functions
- collaboration with other Australian archival repositories eg National Library of Australia, state libraries, CARM, individual universities to reduce unnecessary duplication
- provision of a national print archive of journals to which universities have electronic access only
Physical
- high density, low cost
- environmental conditions appropriate to long term storage including temperature and humidity control, air circulation and filtering devices, security
- energy consumption minimised.
- fire control through wet pipe sprinkler and smoke detectors
Facilities
- technologies to allow rapid delivery of materials to remote locations
- small reading area for on-site use of materials but with low staff interaction
- located within easy reach of national transportation facilities
- database of all items in the collection and their use maintained by the facilities manager
- bibliographic details of items to be available through National Bibliographic Database and catalogues of member institutions
Management
- collection owned by consortium of universities
- policies determined by a board of directors appointed by the consortium
- operational management contracted to a facilities manager
Collection
- no duplication of items within the repository
- no duplication of items held in other Australian ‘archival’ repositories whose collections are available for onsite consultation or document delivery
- all items submitted to store must have appropriate bibliographic records
- items to be available in digital format
Use
- items available on a first-come first-served basis
- agreed despatch of requested items within 24 hours
- patrons from members library may request items through home library or directly to the facility. E-forms for requesting items available.
Financial
- capital and initial establishment costs covered by government grant
- operating costs shared by member institutions on basis of agreed formula
- all items available to members at a lower charge than to non-members
- Non-member items, duplicates and items not jointly owned are only accepted with approval to the Board of Directors
Recommendation 6
that The HEIIIAC establish a working party to develop a specification for the provision of storage facilities which meet agreed protocols.
4.4 Digitisation of Australian Publications and Manuscripts
While there is a considerable range of digital research material available from international sources, the provision of Australian material is limited especially heritage sources and retrospective publications. Much of this material will never be made available through commercial publishers as the market is not significant enough. Yet, there is a growing demand for digital access to a range of sources to support research as well as teaching and learning. Some of this demand has been met by grants from the Australian Research Council and by the efforts of individual institutions. The result, however is piecemeal.
A multiphase approach is required which includes
- survey of current practices
- identification of research requirements and priorities
- specification of standards and key issues such as copyright
The programme would complement the successful Australian Literature Gateway and other digitisation projects previously funded by the Australian Research Council as well as the digital version of APAIS (Australian Public Information Affairs Service) produced on behalf of the National Library by RMIT Publishing. There would also be relevance to initiatives in the archives sector to establish a national digital archive.
This project has implications for the institutional repositories project in terms of how digital files are created, stored and accessed. Quite separately, there is a need to identify the priorities for the digitisation of specific materials. This process should involve
- developing guidelines for the digitisation of Australian material
- providing opportunities for researchers to identify material to be digitised
- establishing a priority list for digitisation and for the allocation of funding
- ensuring conformance with international standards and protocols
- fostering interaction with international organisations involved in digitisation projects
- providing a framework for digitisation and collaborative effort among Australian cultural institutions
- increasing access to Australian publications and research
Recommendation 7
that
- expressions of interest be sought from universities and their partners for the coordination of a survey of current practices and the identification of research requirements and priorities over a 9 to 12 month period
- expressions of interest be sought from universities and their partners for the development of guidelines concerning standards and other issues which must be address as a pre-condition of grant allocations. 6 months
- the HEIIIAC liaise with the ARC to develop a programme for improving access to Australian publications and manuscripts in digital formats.