The database is compiled by consultant Karina Smith at the Centre for Laboratory Animal Science and Alternatives, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in Oslo. NORINA has been continually updated since 1991.

To facilitate searching, the products cited in NORINA have been organised into different Types and Categories. There are more than 30 different types of alternatives in the database, including three-dimensional models, video films, interactive CD-ROMs, computer simulations and slide series. Each product has, in addition, been assigned to one or more of over 30 categories, such as Anatomy, Dissection, Pharmacology, Physiology and Surgery. In this way it is possible for users to conduct more specific searches in the database, to narrow the results to the field in which they are interested.

NORINA makes extensive use of the Internet's ability to cross-link information. Records include hot links to the suppliers' own websites of products in the database, and in many cases to email addresses of the product authors. Many of the products in NORINA may be borrowed from international loan schemes such as that run by InterNICHE and HSUS. Each of the records in NORINA describing these products contains a hot link to these loan schemes. Likewise, there are links from NORINA to the EURCA database, which is a smaller database providing peer-reviewed information on computer simulations suitable for use in higher education.

The development of the NORINA database reflects the enormous increase in the number of potential alternatives or supplements to the use of animals that has occurred over the last twenty years. By 1990 veterinarian Richard Fosse, then working at the Haukeland Hospital in Bergen, had collected information on approximately 40 programs. Pharmatutor, a computer simulation of the effects of drugs on blood pressure in the rat, was one of the very first alternatives in this collection. This information was handed over to the Veterinary School in 1991, and became the start of the NORINA project. The database was initially sold on floppy discs. By 1996, NORINA was so large, and in demand worldwide, that a decision was taken to place the entire database on the Internet, free of charge. The U.K. organisation Laboratory Animals Ltd. kindly donated the NORINA server at the Veterinary School, along with several of the computers used for the development and compilation of the database.

NORINA has benefited since 1996 from close collaboration with Rees Griffiths at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.  For nearly 10 years Rees provided a mirror site (identical copy) of the database on a server at this university, making it easier for users on the Pacific coast to access NORINA.  Rees was also instrumental in designing NORINA's search engine.  This mirror site was disbanded when the present, more powerful, database was launched in 2005.

Since NORINA is available free of charge, the project is entirely dependent upon external funding. Since 1996 this funding has come from a wide range of sponsors, including animal welfare organisations, trusts, legacies and the pharmaceutical industry.

The scope of the products cited in NORINA has increased dramatically over the years, as new technologies have been adopted for teaching purposes. Some examples are:

• The dissection programme 'Investigation of a Mammal (Rat)' produced by Dr. Wendy van Dok, Melbourne, Australia. This programme consists of pictures, slides and a video film based on a real dissection. This product won the multimedia festival award at the 2nd World Congress on Animal Use in the Life Sciences and Alternatives in Utrecht in 1996.
  
• The interactive computer simulation SimMuscle replicates the nerve-muscle preparation commonly used in pharmacology and physiology classes. The student using this virtual programme has to connect correctly all the equipment shown on the screen before the simulation will function. SimMuscle is one of a series of programs developed by Professor Hans Braun and co-workers in Marburg, Germany.
  
• The Microsurgical Developments PVC Rat is a three-dimensional model which has been successfully used on courses in microsurgery to reduce the number of rats needed to train surgeons. The model comes with an explanatory videofilm. A separate interactive computer program (on CD) called REMOTE simulates the procedures necessary for anaesthesia of a rat. This product was developed by Professor René Remie and co-workers in Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Large numbers of animals are still used in teaching and training, both in schools and in the biomedical sciences. It has been estimated that in the USA alone, 6 million animals are used in schools for dissection purposes (Balcombe, 2000). Many teachers and pupils are now looking for alternatives to traditional dissection classes. The products in NORINA may also be useful in reducing animal use in situations where total replacement is impossible. The training of researchers and technicians in pharmaceutical companies, and of veterinary students, can often be improved by the introduction of audiovisual aids and models, so that the trainee learns the basic elements (and, not least, how to avoid animal suffering) before starting to use live animals.

By providing information on alternatives and supplements to this use of animals, the NORINA database contributes to the implementation of the three R's of Russell & Burch (1959): Replacement, Reduction and Refinement.