The OVAM project set out a year ago with the ambitious objective to collate and repurpose as many already existing veterinary anatomical resources as possible. It aimed to do this by involving a large number of partner institutions who would be responsible for contributing resources and assigning an eCurator to work on improving some of these. They would not only collect the resources but also assemble them into useful presentations with a high educational value. This ambition alone makes the project highly unique within its field as there are no other veterinary anatomy collections of comparable size with such an extensive range of partners, at an international level. It is difficult to put a finite value against a resource such as this, however its potential to enrich the studies and knowledge of all veterinary anatomists across the world is irrefutable.
By collecting together the wealth of already existing resources available amongst partners and storing them in one place, a reliable, easily accessible and innovative new tool has been created. No doubt its impact will be seen at many levels. This is an activity which is especially important in light of the current economic climate, where students face a constant struggle against the increased costs of study, and where raised tuition fees and a higher cost of living often impacts negatively on their means to purchase additional study materials, such as text books. A resource open to everyone provides equal opportunities for all, including those further afield, internationally and to laypeople interested in learning anatomy. As well as providing a useful tool for students it is also expected that the collection will be utilised by academics in their teaching. Resources in an area may be lacking at their own institutions or they may wish to provide links to additional study material. The international collection will help to reduce duplication of effort, with many academics previously often producing similar materials.
The creation of such a collection should help to reduce confusion amongst students about where they should be looking for resources, an issue which has increasingly become a problem with large amounts of unreliable and unmonitored material appearing on the internet in recent years. By addressing these issues it is hoped that the Online Veterinary Anatomy Museum will revolutionise anatomy teaching and the way students learn, providing them with the opportunity to access highly innovative materials which allow the chance to revise a subject as many times as the student wishes, without the limitations of physical dissections, whilst also being interactive, aiding to enrich their learning experience.
It is anticipated that this is only the start of a new approach to the sharing of anatomy teaching resources and that as the site is publicised additional partners will be keen to commit and contribute content, helping to further enhance the museum in return for full access to the back-room or 'stack' where the entire selection of resources are stored. Involvement in the project will hopefully work as an incentive for partners to actively maintain and continue adding to the museum collectively, minimising the need for additional outside input after the close of the project, whilst also working to actively encourage their students to utilise the resource to the full.
In addition to long-term support from academic partners it is hoped that the support of commercial partners such as Elsevier and Manson Publishing in the museum project and others such as Pfizer and Mars in the wider WikiVet project, which is closely associated, will help to provide further financial assistance. This may be in the form of funding new content, contributing a percentage of existing texts or helping to source staff salaries in order to assist partners and sustain the site. As well as these mechanisms for support the broader WikiVet project is working towards a commercialisation model in order to become self-sustaining. Using a "freemium" model this will aim to generate some income on additional supplementary material to the already existing free open educational resources. This may be through the sale of short low-cost e-lectures or an online bookshop recommending the most useful anatomy texts and taking a percentage of the book sales.
