University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007 Research Expertise Database Anna Clements Project Manager, Business Improvements

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007Overview Research Expertise database setup in Nov 2002 to provide single data source Covers all academic staff and other research- active staff Key role in RAE2008 data collection and collection … … but not just for RAE

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007 Current Statistics Expertise details for 700 individuals publications (1997 – current day) esteem indicators, former positions, qualifications, honours and awards etc Live link to projects Live link to research students

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007 Key Benefits Reduce (eliminate?) duplication of effort in collecting and maintaining the data One-stop view of research expertise and activity – bringing data from different sources together Data held in central systems is transparent and therefore Users have confidence in data being complete, correct and current Public view of research expertise at St Andrews

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007 More on the Link … Physical infrastructure dSpace installation hosted by University of Edinburgh Research Expertise (Oracle database) at University of St Andrews User interface Must be fast and simple for users (academics …) Single interface to enter metadata and upload full-text Technical requirements Either system (Research Expertise or Repository) will continue to function without the other eg in event of one system being down Flexibility to switch to different Repository software/database with limited re-coding No changes required to the existing standalone web-based Repository interface (dSpace) because of the need to interface with ResExp, therefore keeping upgrade path clear => The basic principle => ResExp use web services which expose certain data and processes within the Repository database and software

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007 Two simple web services … Insert into DRR Retrieve handle from DR ResExp DRR Metadata XML File List Files ResExp_ID Collections Username Timestamp ResExp_ID DRR_ID Username Timestamp or ResExp_ID Error Message Username Timestamp ResExp DRR DRR_ID Username Timestamp DRR_ID Handle Username Timestamp or DRR_ID Error Message Username Timestamp

University of St Andrews EuroCRIS Membership meeting, Helsinki May 2007 Now for the demo …