Sharing With the Open Archives Initiative Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Indiana University.

Sharing With the Open Archives Initiative

Jenn Riley

Metadata Librarian

Indiana University

3/20/07 Getty Technical Talk 2

Purpose of Open Archives Initiative “develops and promotes interoperability

standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content”

“has its roots in the open access and institutional repository movements”

“Archive” defined broadly: “as a repository for stored information”


Early history of the Open Archives Initiative Originally defined a “metadata harvesting

protocol” – OAI-PMH Grew out of efforts to share e-prints Original work supported by:

Digital Library Federation (DLF) Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) National Science Foundation (NSF)


OAI-PMH

Protocol history Version 1.0 released January 2001 Version 1.1 released July 2001 Version 2.0 released June 2002 No further major revisions planned

Protocol for harvesting metadata, not content No inherent assumption that the metadata

describes digital content


Diagram from OAI for Beginners - the Open Archives Forum online tutorial at http://www.oaforum.org/tutorial/english/intro.htm

How OAI-PMH works


Data providers

Set up a server that responds to harvesting requests

Required to expose metadata in simple Dublin Core (DC) format

Can supplement DC with metadata in any other format expressible with an XML schema (e.g., CDWA Lite)


Service providers

Harvest and store metadata Generally provide search/browse access to this

metadata Can be general or domain-specific Can choose to collect metadata in formats other

than DC Can provide value-added services Sometimes re-expose metadata to other

aggregations


Typical service provider behavior Today

Collect and normalize metadata Provide basic discovery Send user back to home institution for more

information and/or access to content Future

Metadata enrichment Resource licensing …


Why share metadata?

Benefits to users One-stop searching Aggregation of subject-specific resources

Benefits to institutions Increased exposure for collections Broader user base Bringing together of distributed collections

Don’t expect users will know about your collection and remember to visit it.


Why share metadata with OAI-PMH? “Low barrier” protocol Shares metadata only, not content,

simplifying rights issues Same effort on your part to share with one or

a hundred service providers (basically) Wide adoption in the cultural heritage sector Quickly eclipsed methods such as Z39.50


Sharing can be hard

Some initiatives have fizzled out CIMI AMICO

Some are still going ARTstor RLG Cultural Materials CAMIO and other AMICO derivatives

Art museums have been most active Customizing for each individual aggregator isn’t

sustainable


Sharing is easier with OAI-PMH Framework for sharing with multiple

aggregators Museum-centric OAI initiatives are emerging

CDWA Lite from the Getty RLG Museum Collections Sharing Working Group

Museums are beginning to explore more

open sharing models


Challenges to OAI-PMH adoption for museums Protocol implicitly assumes you want

metadata to be harvestable by anyone DC a poor match for describing most

museum materials Museums often want to share content as well

as metadata (with select partners)

One solution? Start a specialized service provider in the community.


Some service providers

OAIster National Science Digital Library Sheet Music Consortium Open Language Archives Community


“Shareable” metadata

Promotes search interoperability - “the ability to perform a search over diverse sets of metadata records and obtain meaningful results” (Priscilla Caplan)

Is human understandable outside of its local context

Is useful outside of its local context Preferably is machine processable


Models for sharing with OAI-PMH

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Digital asset management system

Metadata creation module

OAI data provider module

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Metadata creation system

Stand-alone OAI data provider

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DC

QDC MODS

CDWA Lite

DC CDWA Lite

QDC MODS

Metadata creation module S

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Basic metadata sharing workflow Create metadata, thinking about shareability Determine format(s) you wish to share your

metadata in Transform records into versions appropriate for

sharing via OAI Validate transformed metadata Load transformed metadata into OAI data provider Test with OAI Repository Explorer Communicate with service providers See what your metadata looks like once a service

provider harvests it


Expanding the scope

“Over time, however, the work of OAI has expanded to promote broad access to digital resources for eScholarship, eLearning, and eScience”

Some experiments with sharing content CIC Metadata Portal Fedora Asset Actions MPEG-21 DIDL over OAI-PMH OAI-ORE


CIC Metadata Portal

Research project to build an OAI-based aggregator for a consortium of academic libraries in the Midwest

Created a version of qualified DC to indicate the location of a thumbnail image

Integrated harvested thumbnails into search interface

Procedure documented in January 2006 D-Lib Magazine article


Asset Actions

Grew out of need for “actionable URLs” XML schema designed for facilitating the sharing

and manipulation of digital objects Define core functions for digital objects of all types,

e.g., “get preview” Begun to define further functions for specific content

types Proof-of-concept implementation created for DLF

Aquifer project Can be shared via OAI-PMH as a supplemental

metadata format Documented in October 2006 D-Lib Magazine

article


MPEG-21 DIDL over OAI-PMH Repository architecture at Los Alamos National

Laboratory uses MPEG-21 DIDL for complex digital objects

OAI-PMH repositories integral parts of the internal repository architecture

These internal OAI-PMH repositories do not support DC metadata – “Because mapping a DID that represents a complex digital object to simple DC is quite an impossible task, support of DC by these OAI-PMH repositories is rather meaningless.”

Described in 2004 JCDL paper Lay the groundwork for OAI-ORE


OAI-ORE

Open Archives Initiative Object Re-Use and Exchange

Two-year Mellon-funded project beginning October 2006

Will develop specifications that allow distributed repositories to exchange information about their constituent digital objects

Goal is to facilitate “a new digitally-based scholarly communication framework”

Imagine how research could be transformed if users had seamless access to information in any repository, anywhere, and the tools to use them


Goals for initial OAI-ORE project Formation of an international advisory committee,

consisting of leaders in e-Science, institutional repositories, publishing, library, and educational technology communities.

Formation of an international working group that will meet over the two year period and develop the set of ORE specifications.

Establishment and management of an experimental deployment community that will exercise the developed standards in a variety of contexts.

Establishment of a sustainable community to support the widespread deployment and management of the standards fabric.


OAI-ORE potential for cultural materials Original focus is on scholarship, and sharing

text and datasets No inherent limitations to these uses Facilitates, but doesn’t require exchange of

actual content Focus on complex objects better suited to

cultural materials than OAI-PMH model It’s still early, but inherent flexibility of model

looks promising for cultural materials


For more information

[email protected] These presentation slides

<http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/presentations/getty2007/oai.ppt>

OAI home page <http://www.openarchives.org> OAI-PMH <http://www.openarchives.org/pmh/> OAI-ORE <http://www.openarchives.org/ore/>

Sharing With the Open Archives Initiative Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Indiana University.

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