Supporting Australian repositories

The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) has launched the CAUL Australian Institutional Repository Support Service (CAIRSS).  From yesterday's announcement:

Following discussions with the Department of Innovation (DIISR) the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) Executive, and the ARROW Management Committee, CAUL is establishing the CAUL Australian Institutional Repository Support Service (CAIRSS), to provide support for all institutional repositories in Australian universities, regardless of the software being used. CAIRSS will be overseen by CAUL and is funded by the residue of the ARROW funds plus the annual Australasian Digital Theses Program (ADT) contribution to provide support beyond the end of 2008 over a two/three year period.

CAUL has appointed the University of Southern Queensland, through the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI) within the Division of Academic Information Services (DAIS) to undertake its new institutional repository support service. The service will commence officially on March 16, 2009.

PS:  For related initiatives see the OAD list of Services to support repository managers.