these materials can be stored and discovered, and at times these leaders 

have made repositories into requirements for their initiatives' project plans or 

written them into their grants.  

[ADL 2004, p.1]  

1.5.1 `Silos' of high quality resources 

Over recent years the focus in terms of e learning has been in the commercial production of 

high quality re usable resources for the academic community. This has been co ordinated 

with the drive to move away from traditional methods in the classroom, towards more 

technology based techniques in teaching and learning. This strategy has sometimes resulted 

in inaccessible `silos' of high quality resources, and advanced software platforms such as 

virtual learning environments, not well used within institutions. With the increasing enthusiasm 

about learning repositories comes the hope of increasing the awareness of these `silos' of 

content and more effective delivery methods between them and their target audiences. 

1.5.2 Inaccessible Resources 

Improving the access to these silos of resources is dependent on the search and retrieval 

methods available to users. Traditionally when these resources are created they are delivered 

through a website or an alternative static mechanism. This means that their retrieval relies 

upon the efficiency of internet search engines, which is arguably decreasing due to the vastly 

growing number of web resources and commercial rating methods (such as sponsored links). 

Through the implementation of a learning repository comes the ability to tag resources with 

high quality metadata.  

The most powerful tool currently available for describing and locating digital 

materials is metadata and a thorough metadata schema. By creating records 

and making them available for searching, the creator of metadata allows a 

resource to be discovered by a user who might not know in advance the 

specific resource they require. By creating metadata records that describe 

multiple attributes of the resource referred to, the creator of metadata allows 

a resource to be discovered using multiple searching techniques.  

[ADL 2003 p.8]  

Quality metadata is the critical factor to the effectiveness of any search engine. However the 

availability of a good metadata schema within a repository is not directly linked to the quality 

of the record, which is mainly dependent on the repository strategy, its administrators and the 

underlying community (discussed in greater depth in section 1.5). 

1.5.3 Contributing Resources 

The strategy of commercially produced content is inefficient and in the long term, potentially 

self defeating to the e learning community. In the past if practitioners created their own 

resources, the storage, delivery and retrieval methods available were limited and the overall 

rewards and recognition were minimal. As institutions and practitioners become more adept at 

creating and repurposing electronic learning resources it is the existence of learning 

repositories that will encourage contributions. This will result in a self perpetuating strategy, 

where content available to the community is created by the community and vice versa. 

1.5.4 The Google effect 

With the rise of popular internet search engines came the promise of being able to locate 

quality resources within seconds. However the vast expanse of the web over recent years, 

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