A next-generation version of the early internet knowledge-based jump stations has been launched in the United Kingdom.
The network of discipline-based "hubs" will offer students, lecturers and researchers better access to high quality net.
The Resource Discovery Network will catalogue and link to net sources that contain a wide range of educational materials. Users will be able to run interdisciplinary searches, using the RDN's cross-searching software across the discipline-based hubs.
Resources will be screened and reviewed by subject experts who are guiding development. The five hubs cover medicine and the life sciences; the social sciences, business and law; the humanities; the physical sciences; and engineering, computing and mathematics.
Hubs are located at various universities around Britain. The RDN is expected to develop significant links beyond academia.
Many of the hubs have been developed in partnership with learned societies and professional and related cultural institutions. Hubs for other disciplinary areas will be added as the RDN builds partnerships in the public and private sectors.
The RDN is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee, the Arts and Humanities Research Board and the Economic and Social Research Council. It is managed by the RDN Centre, based at King's College, London and the University of Bath.