The Resource Discovery Network and OAI

Andy PowellUKOLN, University of Bath

a.powell@ukoln.ac.uk

www.ukoln.ac.uk

UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

2

About the RDN

• Resource Discovery Network (RDN)

• co-operative network of subject gateways• BIOME (health, medicine and life sciences)• EEVL (engineering, maths and computing)• HUMBUL (humanities)• PSIgate (physical sciences)• SOSIG (social science, business and law)

• databases of descriptions of high quality Internet resources… and other services

• 30,000+ records in total

• funded by JISC for UK HE and FE

3

About the RDN

• subject-focused communities• cataloguers (subject specialists)

• end-users (community-oriented collaborative services)

• individual Web interfaces but shared policy framework

• collection development

• cataloguing guidelines

• technical standards and interoperability

• IPR

• DC metadata (with some extensions)

4

Searching… using Z39.50

• central cross-searching service based on Z39.50

• but...• performance issues• difficult to build flexible browse interface

• so... looking for a record sharing solutionRDN

ResourceFinder

EEVLBIOME

HUMBUL PSIgateSOSIG

5

Sharing… using OAI

• share records using OAI• build central database of all

RDN records• basis for central search, browse

interface and other services (e.g. Web index)RDN

ResourceFinder

EEVLBIOME

HUMBUL PSIgateSOSIG

6

Implementation

• implementation not tied to particular subject gateway software

• two Perl scripts...• first provides record conversion from

gateway format to OAI XML format• second supports the OAI protocol• very simple repository

• records stored in UNIX filestore as XML files

• sub-directories for each OAI ‘set’

• Perl scripts will be made freely available

7

Issues - record richness

• default unqualified DC record format in OAI is broadly in line with RDN records

• but...• does not support full richness of RDN

records, e.g.• can not indicate the subject

classification scheme in use• need to investigate whether specific RDN

record format is required

8

Issues - branding

• need to indicate ownership of records• need to brand records appropriately in

central search/browse results• intend to use the OAI <about> section as

follows:• dc:creator - the name of the cataloguer (author

of the record)

• dc:publisher - the name of the gateway that originally made the record available

• dc:rights - a simple rights statement about the record

9

Issues - how open?

• RDN records not freely available to anyone• open protocol/standard but ‘closed’ service• can use standard HTTP authentication

methods to restrict access• IP address checking• HTTP basic authentication (username

and password)• SSL

10

Conclusions

• OAI protocol met a requirement already identified by the RDN to move from searching to sharing

• now need to:• finalise repository code and deploy with

all gateways• develop (or find) OAI ‘service provider’

code (gatherer)• transition cross-searching service to use

central database

11

URLs

• RDN Web site<www.rdn.ac.uk>

• paper about use of OAI by subject gateways<www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/www10/>

• these slides<www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/articles.html>

12