1.6.3 Conclusions 

Evidence suggests there is widespread acknowledgement within existing learning repositories 

of the user expectations and requirements discussed in this section. However it appears that 

because of the associated issues and current constraints such as repository immaturity and 

limited communities, individual initiatives are focusing on a subset of the requirements. 

A review of the materials and resources currently available online shows that 

many repository projects implemented successful policies regarding some of 

these domains, but few in all. Some have excellent systems of outreach and 

peer review but mixed collections of materials. Others have extremely good 

content but are not well known. Some hold fast to their metadata schema, 

applying it well and consistently, but lack a large collection of materials.  

[ADL 2003, p.6] 

There is also evidence to suggest that regardless of what requirements a learning repository 

initiative focuses their efforts on, the degree to which the project is a success differs 

dramatically. This is an indication of the vast number of factors that affect the community 

uptake of a repository and its predicted life span. 

In the last few years, learning repositories (digital repositories containing 

resources used for training and education) have been developed to meet the 

needs of many various populations. They have met their user's needs with 

varying degrees of success and faced challenges common to all in differing 

and innovative ways.  

[ADL 2003, p.3] 

Regardless of the issues associated with metadata, content and interoperability, it seems 

sensible to assume that if repository initiatives collaborate and work towards high user 

expectations as discussed in this section, the community will witness seamless resource 

sharing between not only learning repositories, but also learning management systems and 

globally distributed portals. 

This section has provided definitions of repositories used throughout the remainder of this 

report, briefly looked at the learning repository trend as whole and detailed user expectations 

of repository initiatives as a result of research undertaken by the ADL. The next section 

details existing repository initiatives, their background, objectives, goals and features. 

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