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Academic and research staff at the University of Alberta need to store and retain their digital intellectual assets on-line. They also need to make their work available and visible to others within and outside the institution. More and more university constituents are turning to the online and digital world to manage and share their research and knowledge.

Using industry standards, UADORe will help our institution develop coherent and coordinated approaches to the capture, identification, storage and retrieval of its digital intellectual assets. A managed approach to these assets creates opportunities for efficient use of existing research, increases opportunities for improved learning experiences and encourages collaboration within and between different disciplines and groups.

There is enormous scope for re-use of digital content. A centralized digital repository will help to break the cycle of individual silos of digital projects and collections by establishing a common store with access for all. UADORe would encourage the sharing of information, enabling collaboration and the widespread communication of institutional education and research activity.

With continuing planning and commitment, UADORe provides a safe, secure, easily searchable digital object repository to the University community. This service will in turn, uphold all four of the cornerstones set out in the University of Alberta’s latest visioning document.

1) UADORe will attract talented people. Researchers and academics are often drawn to universities which provide this kind of infrastructure. This is increasingly true as the digital academic world becomes more important. The projects on UADORe also display the kind of digital projects that are already underway at the University of Alberta. The projects highlight some of the possibilities that are available for graduate students and researchers.

2) UADORe will support learning, discovery and citizenship. The kind of projects that UADORe hosts bring together academics, students and the community. By archiving and displaying objects which impact our understandings of ourselves, these projects help us discover the connections between our past and our present. For example, the Rocky Mountain Repeat Photography Project not only reveals the way the landscape of the Canadian Rockies have changed, but also the incredible journeys that were undertaken by the original surveyors of the Rockies. This secondary aspect of the project was discovered by Ian MacLaren and has become the subject of his latest book, Mapper of Mountains: M.P. Bridgland in the Canadian Rockies.

3) UADORe will connect communities. The digital world is perhaps the most important new tool for connecting communities, both locally and across the globe. For example, the MNC Historic Database project hopes to have a profound impact on Métis communities, by providing a tool for the public to directly connect to the history of the Métis people in Canada.

4) UADORe will aid in organization and support. The primary purpose of UADORe will be to provide support to those who are doing exciting and innovative work in the digital work. Centralizing this service will mean that projects can work together and will be able to take advantage of existing organizational structures. In addition, UADORe is partners with the University of Alberta’s Museums and Collections.

     
 

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