Even when accepted standards, like Dublin Core and OAI-PMH, are being applied, local interpretation often compromises data quality and technical interoperability. Preliminary testing indicates that, while very few repositories are-non harvestable, only a handful deliver 100% valid XML - the result is that only limited information is made available for searching.
The DRIVER team has developed a web based tool, whose task is to check the degree of conformance with the DRIVER guidelines (v 2.0) 
and the OAI-PMH protocol.
You may request to register your repository with DRIVER, so that its contents are harvested periodically, indexed into the DRIVER platform and presented in the DRIVER European Repository search portal. In this way, publicly funded research deposited in your repository can achieve wider distribution - to be read, used and cited more widely by the global research community. Repositories successfully harvested by DRIVER are entitled to display the DRIVER logo on their library website, to certify quality and global networked status of their content.
The DRIVER consortium has developed a set of Guidelines for Content Providers, which aim to improve the quality of available metadata and assist DRIVER in integrating and simplifying the use of these metadata by the DRIVER search portal and other service providers. Managers of new repositories may use them to define their local data-management policies; managers of existing repositories may take advantage of them in order to take steps towards improved services; developers of repository platforms in order to add supportive functionalities in future versions.
Within the DRIVER project, three strategic studies on digital repositories and related topics have been carried out. They provide an excellent survey for best practices, methodologies and technologies used throughout the European data space.
- Inventory study into the present type and level of OAI compliant Digital Repository activities in the EU
- A DRIVER's Guide to European Repositories; Five studies of important Digital Repository related issues and good practices
- The Investigative Study of Standards for Digital Repositories and Related Services