the OAI: overview and historical context
OAI Open Meeting – Washington DC – January 23rd 2001
Herbert Van de Sompel & Carl LagozeCornell University -- Computer Science
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The Open Archives Initiative has been set up to create a forum to discuss and solve matters of interoperability between preprint solutions, as a way to promote their global acceptance. Paul Ginsparg, Rick Luce & Herbert Van de Sompel
OAI origin
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preprint solutions
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• attractive building block in ongoing transformation
of scholarly communication
• interoperability could increase impact of preprints:
• amongst preprint solutions
• with building blocks that implement other
functions of scholarly communication
• with the established communication system
e-print
e-print accessibility
e-print
e-print
e-print
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e-print
e-print
e-print accessibility
e-print
e-print
e-print
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e-print
preprint solutions
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• Santa Fe meeting: improve accessibility of
preprints
• by improving searchability
• via the provision of an interoperability spec
Core concepts of Santa Fe convention
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• low-barrier interoperability
• data-provider & service-provider model
• metadata harvesting model
• shared metadata format and parallel, community-
specific metadata formats
• acceptable use
Dienst subset
OAMS
XML reply
HTTP based
Gentelmen’s agreement
metadata harvesting
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metadata
e-print
e-print
e-print
e-print
e-print
metadata harvesting
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metadata
AuthorTitleAbstractIdentifer
e-print
e-print
e-print
e-print
e-print
interest from other communities
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• Digital Library Federation meetings ~ research library community has many materials for which they would like to ‘expose’ metadata
• OAI San Antonio meeting: ~ interest from librarians, publishers, others, ...
resulting actions: organizational
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• establish organizational stability for the OAI:
• institutional backing from CNI & DLF
• steering committee: policy guidance
• technical committee: technical specifications
• executive group: day to day coordination
• workshops: public dissemination, feedback
resulting actions: technical
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• [09/2000] revise specifications to allow adoption beyond preprints: technical committee
• [09/2000-01/2001] compile new specifications: editing by Carl and Herbert
• [11/2000-01/2001] alpha-test specifications: oai-alpha group
• [01/2001] discontinue the Santa Fe Convention
• [01/2001] release version 1.0 of the OAI protocol
core concepts in OAI 1.0
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• low-barrier interoperability
• data-provider & service-provider model
• metadata harvesting model
• shared metadata format and parallel, community-
specific metadata formats
• acceptable use
• flexibility
OAI 1.0 protocol
Dublin Core
HTTP based
Community specific
Reply • XML Schema
• Self contained
low-barrier interop umbrella
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metadata
OPAC
image
FTXT
A&I
e-print
low-barrier interop umbrella
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metadata
OPAC
image
FTXT
A&I
e-print
AuthorTitleAbstractIdentifer
OAI harvesting tools
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DatestampIdentifierSet
Records
repos i tory
harves ter
service provider data provider
OAI harvesting tools
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Supporting protocol requests:• Identify• ListMetadataFormats• ListSets
Harvesting protocol requests:• ListRecords• ListIdentifiers• GetRecord
repos i tory
harves ter
service provider data provider
modes of running OAI 1.0 repository
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• mode 0:
• no registration of repository in the OAI registry
modes of running OAI 1.0 repository
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• mode 1:
• registration of repository in public OAI registry
[includes validation of replies]existence of the repository is visible
modes of running OAI 1.0 repository
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• mode 2:
• registration of repository in public OAI registry
• usage of the OAI format for identifiers
resolver for OAI formated identifiers
existence of the repository is visible
tools to support OAI implementation
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• Hussein’s Repository explorer
• XSV Schema Validator
• XML Spy
• the OAI comformance tester [soon]
communication re OAI
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• lists: subscribe via http://www.openarchives.org
• oai-general list [replaces UPS list; UPS-
subscribers will be moved]
• oai-implementers list
• web: http://www.openarchives.org
• FAQ: http://www.openarchives.org/faq.htm
• mail: [email protected]
• freeze specifications for 12 -18 months:
• stable for experimentation; not definitive• minimize risk for early adopters
• maximize chances for future interoperability across communities
revision of specifications
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The Open Archives Initiative develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content.
new OAI mission statement
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The Open Archives Initiative has its roots in an effort to enhance access to e-print archives as a means of increasing the availability of scholarly communication. Continued support of this work remains a cornerstone of the Open Archives program.
new OAI mission statement
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The fundamental technological framework and standards that are developing to support this work are, however, independent of the both the type of content offered and the economic mechanisms surrounding that content, and promise to have much broader relevance in opening up access to a range of digital materials.
[...]
new OAI mission statement
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http://www.openarchives.org
the oai-alpha test
OAI Open Meeting – Washington DC – January 23rd 2001
Herbert Van de Sompel & Carl LagozeCornell University -- Computer Science
alpha test of specs [11/2000-01/2001]
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• data providers:• arXiv -- Los Alamos • NACA -- NASA• CogPrints -- U Southampton• ETD -- Virginia Tech• Thesis & Dissertations from WorldCat -- OCLC• American Memory -- Library of Congress
• data providers:• HeinOnline law journals -- Cornell U • TEI-lite collection -- U Tennessee• STM publisher metadata -- U Illinois• Resource Disovery Network -- UKOLN• Open Language Archives -- U Pennsylvania• Open Video Project -- U Northern Carolina• CIMI
alpha test of specs [11/2000-01/2001]
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• software:
• OAI harvesting interface to Ex Libris Aleph 500 Integrated Library System -- Ex Libris
• Open-source software capable of creating a merged catalog of metadata harvested from OAI-servers -- OCLC
• OAI 1.O compliant eprints.org software -- U Southampton
alpha test of specs [11/2000-01/2001]
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• service providers:• Repository explorer -- Virginia Tech• ARC service -- Old Dominion U
alpha test of specs [11/2000-01/2001]
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Credits: oai-alpha group for a truly incredibly good job.
Special thanks: Hussein Suleman, Michael Nelson, Simeon Warner for playing a distinct enabling role.
http://www.openarchives.org