Section 2 

2. E learning Repository Initiatives 

2.1 Introduction 

The aim of this section is to consider nineteen international repository initiatives that are 

operational, considering how they emerged, who they are aimed at, what services they offer, 

what they have achieved to date and consideration of their technical architecture. Some 

conclusions will be drawn from these findings with regards to the trends that are emerging 

from the area as a whole and their possible influence on JORUM as it develops as a service. 

This will help inform the development of the JORUM short and long term strategy, for the 

JORUM Service in Development phase which started in August 2005. 

2.2 The JORUM Initiative 

The requirements for the JORUM service repository system were made clear in the tender 

documents issued through the EU procurement process which was carried out between 

January and July 2004. 

The JORUM project was tasked to procure a repository system for a JISC funded learning 

and teaching repository service for the whole of the HE/FE sector in the UK.  After a thorough 

evaluation period, JORUM awarded the three year contract to Intrallect Ltd for the IntraLibrary 

product. Further information on the JORUM Service in Development (the phase JORUM has 

now entered following on from the JORUM project) can be found at the JORUM website

1

. 

After an extensive set of scoping studies which resulted in a series of documents

2

, looking at 

a range of relevant issues (including metadata, the JISC IE, licensing and workflow) the 

JORUM project produced a list of requirements for the JORUM learning repository.  The final 

specification for the initial version of the system is available on the archived JORUM project 

site

3

.  The basic technical requirements can be summarised as: 

The repository needs to: 

Enable interoperability between services/systems in the JISC Information 

Environment

4

. 

 Be 

standards 

based. 

Be platform independent for the user. 

The following features/functionality should be available: 

Upload and storage of learning resources

5

. 

Preview and download of learning resources. 

Support for UK LOM Metadata and additional application profiles. 

 Role based 

authorisation. 

Content Packaging, in accordance with the IMS specification. 

 Workflow 

management. 

Basic and Advanced metadata search. 

Import of metadata. 

Harvesting of metadata. 

1

 JORUM Service in Development website at 

www.jorum.ac.uk

2

  See 

http://www.jorum.ac.uk/research/archive/research/publications.html

3

JORUM Repository Requirements Specification: 

http://www.jorum.ac.uk/research/archive/docs/pdf/JorumSpecification.pdf

4

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=ie_home

5

 In the context of this report a learning resource describes either a web based resource, a single digital file or a content package. 

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