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<font size=3>[Forwarding from the WRN project, via the AmSci OA
Forum. --Peter Suber.]<br><br>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: <b>Hannah Elizabeth Payne [hep]</b> <hep --
<a href="http://aber.ac.uk">aber.ac.uk</a>><br>
Date: Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 7:15 AM<br>
Subject: ***Press Release*** Welsh Repository Network (WRN) launch<br>
To:
<a href="mailto:JISC-REPOSITORIES@jiscmail.ac.uk">
JISC-REPOSITORIES@jiscmail.ac.uk</a><br><br>
<br>
<b>***Press Release***<br><br>
<u>Welsh Repository Network (WRN) launch<br><br>
</u></b>The Welsh Repository Network (WRN), a network of twelve
institutional repositories within each of the higher education
institutions (HEI) within Wales, was launched at the National Library of
Wales on Thursday 19th February, 2009. The launch celebrated the success
of the WRN Project; a project funded by the JISC in association with the
Wales Higher Education Library Forum (WHELF), to provide each HEI in
Wales with the resources and support needed to establish and operate
effective, individual institutional repositories. Each HEI was provided
with funding to purchase repository hardware or to purchase a hosted
repository system, along with support and assistance via the Welsh arm of
the Repositories Support Project (RSP) based at Aberystwyth
University.<br><br>
The WRN launch celebrated the fact that the principality of Wales now has
100% coverage with respect to universities and repositories. This will
allow the universities in Wales to not only preserve and protect their
research, but also make available cutting edge research to the world,
enabling more open dissemination of the ground breaking and world leading
research undertaken across Wales through the Open Access
movement.<br><br>
A further deliverable of the project is the production of a suite of
twelve case studies, documenting the hardware purchases of each
institution (available from
<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2160/1881"><b>
http://hdl.handle.net/2160/1881</a>)</b>. As the HEIs in Wales are
diverse in size and type, ranging from large research-led institutions to
smaller liberal arts or specialist institutions, a variety of hardware
and software solutions were required to fit with their existing
infrastructures. It was hoped that creating these case studies would
assist other universities to allow them to compare their profile with a
case study of an institution with a similar background and infrastructure
plan, and to gauge their hardware needs for repository support
accordingly.<br><br>
The WRN helps to address the Welsh Assembly Government's Reaching Higher
objectives in respect of improving institutional efficiency, increasing
capacity and encouraging collaboration, but also helps to make a
significant contribution to the overall aims and objectives of the JISC
Repositories and Preservation Programme. <br><br>
The following article, containing further details of the WRN project is
available from:
<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2160/1882"><b>
http://hdl.handle.net/2160/1882</a>.<br><br>
Lewis, S. and Payne, H. (2009). How the West was won: Providing
repositories across the principality of Wales. <i>ALISS Quarterly</i>.
4(2), 18-22.<br><br>
WRN Project website:
<a href="http://whelf.ac.uk/wrn/index.shtml">
http://whelf.ac.uk/wrn/index.shtml</a><br><br>
</b>Hannah Payne<br>
Project Officer (Organisational)<br>
Repositories Support Project<br>
Aberystwyth University<br>
01970 628490<br>
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