History of AVEL

The Australasian Virtual Engineering Library (AVEL)

The Australian Virtual Engineering Library (AVEL) was originally funded in 1999 with a Research, Equipment and Infrastructure Fund (REIF) grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC), as well as cash and in-kind contributions from other partners. The funding was for the period 1999 – 2002. The Chief Investigators for the project were Professor David Radcliffe, Thiess Professor of Engineering Education, and Mrs Janine Schmidt, who was at that time the University Librarian, University of Queensland.

AVEL was launched at the Engineering Excellence Awards in May 1999.

It was one of the first gateways developed in Australia and was highly successful in meeting its original goals and objectives, with almost 4000 records created and 900 full-text papers hosted. Since its inception the site was accessed over 1.5 million times.

AVEL Sustainability Knowledge Network

In August 2002, after a meeting with partners, the content and strategic direction of the site was  re-focussed to encompass sustainability issues. Sustainability had become an important issue for engineers and AVEL wanted to provide a high-quality information resource that reflected this. The site became the AVEL Sustainability Knowledge Network (AVEL SKN) and was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

Although the new website became operational in mid - 2002 there had been a number of initiatives which preceded it. The concept of the AVEL Sustainability Knowledge Network took shape during 2000. In November 2000, the AVEL-Sustainable Development (AVEL-SD) gateway was launched at the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Symposium in Brisbane. AVEL-SD resulted from collaboration between the core AVEL team, Engineers Australia, The Institution of Professional Engineers, New Zealand (IPENZ), and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO). A concept was further developed and formed the basis of a second ARC Research Infrastructure grant proposal in April 2001. AVEL SKN utilised the foundation of the AVEL and AVEL-SD web-resources. Additional resources from around the world which focused on sustainability were added.