Developing a technical registry of OAI data providers

Abstract

With the continued growth of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) [1] it has become increasingly difficult for OAI service providers to discover new and keep up-to-date with existing data providers. There are currently several registries of OAI data providers. Most of these registries are incomplete. Most contain minimal information about registered providers - typically a base URL and little if anything else - providing service providers no clue as to repository scope, content, or size. These deficiencies mean significant extra overhead for service providers. This paper describes a more comprehensive registry of OAI data providers (available at http://oai.grainger.uiuc.edu/registry), developed to address some of these issues. While our registry as it presently exists facilitates discovery of data providers, utility is limited by lack of consistent practice for collection-level metadata. To realize the full potential of a better registry, the OAI community needs to develop better practices for collection-level description. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.