The cross-search functionality in the VSM Portal Demonstrator is now available in JISC MediaHub, as well as a range of film, sound and still image collections.
NOTE: This project website will no longer be maintained and may contain broken links.
The aim of the Visual and Sound Materials (VSM) portal scoping study and demonstrator project is to investigate the value and feasibility of a national portal for both time-based media and image collections dedicated to the needs of the Further and Higher Education communities.
A VSM portal is envisaged as a single point of discovery for members of the Further and Higher Education communities wanting to use time-based media and/or still images in their learning, teaching and research.
By being focused on the requirements of the Further and Higher Education communities, the VSM portal will be quite different from more general media-specific resource-discovery tools on the internet, such as Google Images, Google Video and YouTube.
The principal beneficiaries of a VSM portal will be both the members of the Further and Higher Education communities and the providers of content for the portal, who would benefit from exposure of their content to users in the educational community, a potentially new and important audience.
The portal demonstrator has completed a third phase of development. This follows a scoping study and demonstrator development phase of the project. As a condition of funding the VSM portal demonstrator will continue to be available for a further two years after the project (March 2012).