Repositories, Online Databases, Online Bibliographies, Online Library Catalogues, OPAC
On this page:
What are they?
A repository or online database is a Website that stores digital objects and/or provides links to digital objects held on other sites. In an educational context, these objects typically consist of text documents, scanned manuscripts, graphics, images, audio clips, video clips and online copies of journal papers. Users retrieve the objects by searching for specific keywords which contributors to the repository have associated with each object.
Online bibliographies are specialised databases that list research publications and, in some cases, contain links to journal papers where publishers have made them available online. Examples are the British Education Index and Biological Abstracts.
Repositories and databases developed by the educational sector are intended to support research, teaching/learning, or both. In many cases, their resources have been evaluated by experts before inclusion. So, although searching a repository for a resource will result in far fewer “hits” than, say, searching Google Scholar, they may be more relevant to your needs and of a higher quality.
Some repositories cover all subjects in the curriculum: e.g. Intute and SCRAN (a repository of images and multimedia clips from museums). Others are dedicated to a single subject area: e.g. the Westlaw UK directory for legal research and the Archaeology Image Bank.
A number of repositories are dedicated to a specific educational sector; these include FERL for FE and ACLearn for Adult and Community Learning.
Increasingly, learning designs are being included in repositories. See, for example, JORUM, MERLOT and the LAMS Community (although you’ll need access to the LAMS system to view these learning designs).
An online library catalogue, or OPAC is just that: records of all the holdings in a specific library or group of libraries (e.g. all the libraries within one university). Many catalogues are open to non-members of the library. The most famous OPAC in the UK is probably the British Library Integrated Catalogue.
How can I use them with my students?
Repositories, databases of resources and library catalogues are important research tools for students and teaching staff alike. Students in particular need to be aware that there are more appropriate, specialised tools for academic research than the general-purpose search engines.
Examples
We are still researching examples and case studies for this topic. If you would like to contribute any (whether from your own teaching or from other sources), please contact us.
Where can I find a service?
Access to many educational repositories is controlled through the Athens authentication system, to which a large number of colleges and universities subscribe. If you’re working in a college or university, then your library or information service will probably have a Web page listing the major online repositories and databases to which the organisation has access.
Although JORUM is free to use, your college or university needs to sign up for an account before you can register as an individual user or contributor. The JORUM Website contains a list of member institutions, so check it first.
Repositories, databases and resource centres which have a specifically educational remit and are open to anyone include:
- ACLearn: resources for Adult and Community Learning
- AHDS: Arts and Humanities Data Service. Covers archaeology, history, the visual arts, literature, languages, linguistics and the performing arts
- FERL: resources for FE
- Intute: resources grouped by subject area. Has separate services for science & technology, arts & humanities, health & life sciences, social sciences, and science, engineering & technology
- MERLOT: learning materials, mainly from the USA
Also see many of the informal/popular media-sharing repositories e.g. Flickr.
