Bridging repositories to form the MACE experience

Abstract

This paper reports on our experiences in bridging learning repositories on architecture within the MACE system. In order to make access to architectural learning resources simple and easy for students and teachers, we rely heavily on standards. We discuss the concepts behind the MACE system, describe related problems, and how we solve them by employing and modifying standards from the computer science and architecture. By bringing together numerous heterogeneous repositories, combining and relating metadata of their learning resources and incorporating social community support, we enable open access while still respecting organizational and legislative issues of all participating repositories.