About the ADL Registry
The ADL Registry provides a means for registering, searching, and discovering digital objects using a common set of metadata. Metadata is information that describes the digital object, such as its title, description, or author.
While the ADL Registry does not store digital objects, it does provide a pointer to the actual digital objects that are located and managed in repositories. Access to and reuse of the digital objects is encouraged, but is subject to the restrictions set forth by the object owners and repository managers.
The ADL Registry is sponsored and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative. The ADL Registry provides the means for DoD Components to comply with DoD Instruction (DODI) 1322.26, Development, Management, and Delivery of Distributed Learning.
The ADL Registry is the first publicly available CORDRA registry. CORDRA, Content Object Repository Discovery and Registration Architecture, is a framework on which a family of services may be built to support the discovery, sharing, and ultimately, reuse of digital objects. For more information, visit http://www.adlnet.gov/technologies/CORDRA/.
Benefits of the ADL Registry
Registering a digital object in the ADL Registry makes it intentionally visible and searchable. As a result, DoD envisions the following benefits of using the ADL Registry:
- Higher-quality search results over other more general web search strategies that index content
- Reduced time to locate and access appropriate content
- Reduced development effort for content developers
- Reuse of digital objects for different contexts or audiences
- Opportunity to increase quality of digital objects over time
- Scalable architecture that supports multiple locally-managed repositories
- Minimal impact on digital object repository policies and procedures
- Potential to federate with other registries over time
About DoD Instruction 1322.26
DoD Instruction (DODI) 1322.26, Development, Management, and Delivery of Distributed Learning, policy requires DoD Components to share training resources, including Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)-conformant objects, to the maximum extent possible. Specifically, DoD Components are required by 1322.26 to:
- Register digital object metadata and digital object repositories with the ADL Registry
- Search the ADL Registry prior to developing or acquiring learning objects.
Currently, content with classified metadata is exempt from registering in the ADL Registry. Click here to view DODI 1322.26.