Opening up the open access archive: Australian Policy Online

While academic libraries provide access to journals and books for their constituents there are large numbers of organisations and individuals without easy access to the latest research articles and reports. Meanwhile many academics and research centres are bypassing journals in order to publish their work immediately on their website - accessible to anyone, if you can find it. In 2002 Australian Policy Online (www.apo.org.au) was established to overcome these dual problems, providing free and open access to Australian public policy research. In this paper I will firstly contextualise the role of a popular digital library such as APO, and show how it differs from library based services and other information providers. From there I will look at the process of upgrading the site which was undertaken in 2008. In particular I will discuss the applicability of web 2.0 tools and technologies in this context and the results of research undertaken in order to select a new content management system, improve the browsing classifications, and understand which tools and services our readers might find relevant. Tools examined include personal libraries, shared tagging, wikis, blogs, and reader comentary and contributions. Underlying the discussion will be the relationship between the editors and readers of APO and the need to provide simplicity and relevance in the face of vast amounts of information. In terms of the main conference streams, this paper covers the ideas underpinning information architecture, usability and web 2.0 technologies.