http://www.leeds.ac.uk/portole/index.htm
Site for the “Providing Online Resources To Online Learning Environments (PORTOLE)” project, which ended July 2003. This UK-based project aimed to help incorporate more library resources and tools into ‘virtual learning environments.’ Of particular interest to me was the CROSsearch prototype, which provides a single search interface to a number of library catalogues, learning object repositories AND, optionally, Google. Is this the way forward? I don’t know, but it is invaluable to have prototypes like this to examine in more depth and take this out of the abstract realm.
Additionally, you can read the project’s final report, and the latest issue of ARIADNE (out today) contains an article summarizing some of the project’s key findings. – SWL