Development of the Shinshu University Online System of General Academic Resources (SOAR)

This paper discusses the development of the Shinshu University Online System of General Academic Resources (SOAR). As a participant in the 2006–2007 Cyber Science Infrastructure (CSI) development project of the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Shinshu University is seeking to develop SOAR as an integrated academic resource system. In addition to developing an environment for providing access to the latest academic resources within the university, SOAR is intended to promulgate university research results and research activities, both within Japan and around the world, to a broad audience. Specifically, this system achieves mutual coordination by linking e-journals and the Web of Science to the researcher directory and the institutional repository – two system cornerstones. SOAR can be regarded as a potential model for future academic-resource systems. Although the Institutional Repository (SOAR-IR) was developed using existing software, the Researcher Directory (SOARRD) is a new system based on XML technology.