Based at the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), University of Oxford, Forced Migration Online (FMO) is a web-based portal providing extensive scholarly resources on the situation of forced migrants worldwide. Established in 2002 it is freely available and is used by academics, researchers, students, policy makers and practitioners. FMO hosts a ‘digital library’ repository that comprises over 220,000 pages of resources on forced migration issues. Many of these resources are rare or unique. In addition, FMO hosts many published items, including, uniquely, the full back runs of the five leading academic journals in the field. FMO is also the sole host of other discrete special collections, such as the full text of materials referenced in the Sphere Project’s handbook Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. Other resources include an organisations directory, photos, videos, podcasts, and specially commissioned thematic and geographic research guides. These resources have a global focus and while some of the documents date as far back as 40 years, new items are being added constantly. FMO was developed with funding from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation and is currently supported by the Department for International Development (DFID).
With new funding provided by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the Open Access Repository System (OARS) project aims to enhance and consolidate the software platform on which FMO is built. This 18 month project, due to be completed in March 2009, will make FMO technically easier to mange, as well as rendering the repository globally interoperable with other open systems, including the University of Oxford’s institutional repository. By employing open source software (which was not available when FMO was first constructed), this project seeks to ensure FMO’s long-term preservation....
PS: For background, see our previous posts on OARS and FMO.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/08/2008 02:06:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
