"A centre of excellence in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information and cultural heritage communities."

UKOLN is based at the University of Bath.

Introduction

The JISC Information Environment (JISC IE) technical architecture specifies a set of standards and protocols that support the development and delivery of an integrated set of networked services that allow the end-user to discover, access, use and publish digital and physical resources as part of their learning and research activities.

The key standards and protocols specified in the technical architecture are listed in the JISC IE Technical Standards.

Examples of the kind of activities supported by the architecture include:

• Integration of local and remote information resources with a variety of 'discovery' services (for example the RDN subject portals, institutional and commercial portals and personal reference managers) allowing students, lecturers and researchers to find quality assured resources from a wide range of content providers including commercial content providers and those within the higher and further education community and elsewhere.
• Seamless linking from 'discovery' services to appropriate 'delivery' services.
• Integration of information resources and learning object repositories with Virtual Learning Environments (for example, allowing seamless, persistent links from a course reading list or other learning objects to the most appropriate copy of an information resource).
• Open access to e-print archives and other systems for managing the intellectual output of institutions.

Examples of the kinds of content that are available through the JISC IE include scholarly journals, monographs, textbooks, learning objects, abstracts, manuscripts, maps, music scores, Internet resource descriptions, still images, geospatial images and other kinds of vector and numeric data, as well as moving picture and sound collections.

These Web pages present the findings of a 'DNER architecture' study conducted by UKOLN on behalf of the JISC and some associated (and ongoing) work to support the development of the JISC IE.

• The DNER Technical Architecture: scoping the information environment [PDF print version, 150K, 14 pages]

Resources

• Technical Standards
• Usage Scenarios
• Functional Model
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Glossary/terminology
• Technical criteria for evaluating institutional repository (IR) software [PDF]
• A 'service oriented' view of the JISC Information Environment
• The JISC Resource Discovery Landscape - a personal reflection on the JISC Information Environment and related activities
• The JISC Information Environment and Google: a discussion paper
• The JISC Information Environment and Web services
• 5 steps to becoming a content provider in the JISC Information Environment

Related material

• Baseline Portal Functional Specification
• Notes on relationship between JISC IE and Web services.
• JISC IE Service Registry: a pilot project to investigate the requirements of a Service Registry for the Information Enviroment
• Collection Description
• Service Description
• Institutional Profiling
• Authentication and Authorisation Requirements
• Relationship between the GRID architecture and the JISC IE architecture
• Relationships between Virtual Learning Environment architectures and the JISC IE architechure
• Publications
• Presentations
• Acknowledgements