Launch of Asiaportal.info

A one-stop information source on modern Asia - with a Nordic perspective

The portal is a collaborative project between the Library and Information Center at Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS Linc) and 22 Nordic universities and research institutions in the Nordic NIAS Council (NNC).

 

Advanced functionalities

At www.asiaportal.info it is possible to browse through Asian newspapers, databases, journals etc., get updated on Nordic research and activities on Asia and blog with Nordic researchers.
The purpose of the portal is to put information in context by integrating licensed, linked and owned electronic holdings for the users. It aims to meet many different needs e.g.:

• Access to 'Academic resources'

- A NNC access only knowledge sharing site with access to fee-based information resources has been developed. This part of AsiaPortal is based upon common Nordic licence agreements plus state of the art tools for communication and shared work space. This means that the NNC members have access to 46 fee-based databases, and 421 Asia Area studies journals linked together in a federated search system. Access to full text resources is granted to all NNC member institutions through either IP-numbers or Shibboleth identification.

• Promotion and marketing of the NNC member institutions

- The AsiaPortal features a section called the "Nordic Perspectives". This is an initiative based on a collaborative network of NNC institutions aiming to build a common and freely accessible information system for Nordic Asian studies. The AsiaPortal promotes the availability of online content, such as grey literature, open access journals and working papers, which is not available through commercial distribution channels but significantly contributes to Nordic Asian research. However, models for collaboration and seamless information harvesting from member institutions are still under development.

Open Access models
The lack of adequate information exchange possibilities between researchers in Asian Studies represents a significant weakness. Thus the ability of researchers to properly assist in addressing the issues of modern Asia in the Nordic countries is limited. The AsiaPortal will feature a section called the NNC Portal to overcome this. It is a Nordic initiative based on a collaborative network of institutions wishing to build a common and freely accessible information system for Nordic Asian studies. The project's aim is to illustrate how the Open Access (OA) model can be used within the NNC, as a means of solving the problems of information dissemination and exchange of research outputs. All of this by using the NNC Portal as an easy tool for pushing information into the public AsiaPortal owned and run by NNC.

Author: Anja Møller Rasmussen
Date: 06 December 2007