DARE, The Voyage Begun

Abstract(s)

In January 2003, SURF Founcation launched the DARE programme. Sixteen academic institutes in the Netherlands were to cooperatie in making the Dutch academic research output digitally better available and accesible through a distributed network of institutional repositories. This paper describes the setting of the DARE programme and what was done in the first year and a half to get it off the ground and create conditions for a fruitful continuation. It tries to explain that the variety and complexity of the setting asks, not for reduction and simplification, but for an approach that truly reflects and accomodates that variety and complexity. It attempts to show how that can be achieved. The first part of the paper gives a sketch of what DARE may mean for three directly involved stakeholders: a librarian, a researcher and a vice-chancellor. This is done in the form of narratives, reflecting the perspectives of the three stakeholders on the same case. It illustrates the richness and complexity of the issues at stake in DARE, without trying to be exhaustive; and it sets the scene for the second part of the paper, which deals with the programme management approach in the first year.