OAIster and the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway

Casey A. MullinDiscovery Metadata LibrarianStanford University

Music OCLC Users Group Annual MeetingFebruary 14, 2012Fairmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas

2

Introduction

•The OAI worldview: Data Providers and Service Providers

•Service Provider: OCLC (through WorldCat and beyond)

•Data Providers: you!!•What this presentation isn’t•Disclaimers

3

Background• The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting

(OAI-PMH)▫ Developed in 2001▫ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants

• OAIster (University of Michigan)▫ “Designed to establish a broad, generic information retrieval

resource pointing to publicly available digital resource representations, mostly provided by the research library community” (Hagedorn, 2003)

▫ The big idea: “no dead ends”▫ Launched as a public search interface in 2002▫ Harvested all exposed records, but presented only those which

pointed to actual digital objects

Image source: http://www.oaister.org, via the Internet Wayback Machine

4

Background• Meanwhile…

▫ OCLC launches its Metadata Harvesting Program in 2003• UM’s assessment: approach not scalable

▫ Early 2009: announced partnership with OCLC▫ February 2009: OAIster records made discoverable in

WorldCat via FirstSearch▫ Late 2009: harvesting operations moved to OCLC

• WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway▫ Began transition in July 2010▫ Self-service model▫ Compatible with all OAI-compliant repositories▫ Optimized for CONTENTdm▫ Free!

5

OAIster today• Name retained for public interface• Subset of WorldCat

▫25+ million records, representing archival collections of 1,100+ contributors*

• Records are accessible through…▫FirstSearch▫Connexion▫worldcat.org▫…anywhere WorldCat content is syndicated▫oaister.worldcat.org

*Source: http://www.oclc.org/oaister/, accessed February 10, 2012

6

OAIster today

7

OAI-PMH

• Released in 2001• Based on dual worldview: Data Providers and Service Providers• Scalable• Relatively “simple”

Based on HTTP “verbs” Non-MARC counterpart to Z39.50

• Non-invasive (your original records not affected without your intervention)• Minimum requirements set a fairly low floor

Simple Dublin Core Unique and persistent identifier for the digital object Community-specific applications allowed

Image source: http://www.openarchives.org/, accessed February 10, 2012

8

OAI-PMH

• WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway implementation Data provider creates collection profiles (i.e.

customize metadata maps) Data provider sets up harvesting schedule (default is

quarterly) Records are converted to MARC format for storage in

WorldCat More detail to come!!

Image source: http://www.openarchives.org/, accessed February 10, 2012

9

Record example no.1 (digitized score, OAIster view)

10

Record example no.1 (digitized score, OAIster view)

11

Record example no.1 (digitized score, Connexion view)

12

Record example no.2 (born-digital object, OAIster view)

13

Record example no.2 (born-digital object, Connexion view)

14

Sources/further reading• Hagedorn, K. (2003). OAIster: a "no dead ends" OAI

service provider. Library Hi Tech, 21(2), 170-181. • Shreeves, S. L., T. Habing, K. Hagedorn, & J. A.

Young (2004). Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting. Library Trends, 54(1), 576-589.

• Beisler, A., & G. Willis (2009). Beyond theory: Preparing Dublin core metadata for OAI-PMH harvesting. Journal of Library Metadata, 9(1), 65-97.

• WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway Metadata Best Practices: http://www.oclc.org/gateway/support/best_practices.pdf

15

Thank you!!!

Contact: cmullin@stanford.edu