Announcing DONOR

[Henk Matthezing]

L.S.

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Our sincere excuses if you receive more than one copy of this message. It
is crossposted to several lists.
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On 1 May 1998 the project Directory Of Netherlands Online Resources
(DONOR) has started. 

OBJECTIVES 
The objective of DONOR is to create an enabling infrastructure for information 
management and retrieval on SURFnet, the national research network of the
Netherlands. DONOR will provide a co-ordinated approach to document and 
metadata management on the Web. 

CO-ORDINATION & PARTNERS
The project is managed by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National 
Library of the Netherlands, which has a national responsibility in the
field of information infrastructure. 

Participants in DONOR are Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), SURFnet bv and the
Academisch Computer Centrum Utrecht (ACCU). KB is responsible for 
co-ordinating content issues, SURFnet for co-ordinating the technological 
aspects and ACCU will support SURFnet with technological developments as a
subcontractor to SURFnet bv.

DURATION
The duration of the project is two years:
Phase 1: 1 May 1998 till 1 May 1999.
Phase 2: 1 May 1999 till 1 May 2000.

ISSUES
In DONOR methods and techniques will be implemented to improve information
management and retrieval on the World Wide Web. Areas of special interest are 
metadata, structure and version management of web publications, unique 
identification of information units and information filtering techniques.
Search Engines of SURFnet bv will be modified to ensure that the
implementation of standards and techniques on the level of information
management will provide tangible results in the area of retrieval.

DONOR will follow closely the current trends and developments in the 
Internet community, such as the Metadata Activity of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) working groups of
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Dublin Core Metadata 
Workshops of the Online Computer Library Centre (OCLC) and the DOI-system
of the International Digital Object Identifier Foundation (IDF). Exchange
at a practical level with comparable initiatives worldwide (US, Australia,
Europe) will stimulate the necessary link between development and actual
use.

DONOR will make information suppliers and managers in the Netherlands 
aware of the importance of metadata for the retrieval of documents on the
Web.

RESULTS 
After consulting the target group, the Dutch research and higher education
community, DONOR will implement the following set of standards, methods,
procedures and techniques:

    *  A standard metadata set and a metadata generator to create
	descriptions of web documents 
    *  Methods and techniques for the structuring of web documents 
    *  Methods and techniques for version management of web documents 
    *  A procedure for the unique identification of web documents 
    *  A URN-to-URL-resolution service for the management of locations of
	web documents 
    *  Filtering techniques for Web information 

During the project a user group for the DONOR infrastructure will be built
up. The extent and representativeness of this user group will have to
justify the future exploitation of the infrastructure.

For more information about Donor, please contact:

  Koninklijke Bibliotheek,
  Library Research Department,
  Titia van der Werf (project manager)
   
  PO Box          90407
  Postcode        2509 LK
  City            The Hague, The Netherlands
  Telephone       +31 70 3140 467
  Fax   	  +31 70 3140 501
  E-mail          donor at python.konbib.nl
  URL		  http://www.konbib.nl/donor/index-en.html
  Discussionlist: donor-l at nic.surfnet.nl (dutch language mainly)

Regards, Henk
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Henk Matthezing_________________(_)/ /(_)__/                           \
                                    'A King, Riding on Random Water'    
coordinating editor          Virginia Woolf - The Waves (orig. Manuscript)
Redactie Infoservices                 
Koninklijke Bibliotheek/SURFnet B.V.  Phone:  +31 70 3140 615
P.O.B. 90407                          Fax:    +31 70 3140 501
2509 LK Den Haag                      E-mail: henkm at python.konbib.nl
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