Better interoperability through the Open Archives Initiative

Abstract

The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an evolving protocol and philosophy regarding interoperability for digital libraries (DLs). Previously, ‘distributed searching’ models were popular for DL interoperability. However, experience has shown distributed searching systems across large numbers of DLs to be difficult to maintain in an Internet environment. The OAI is a move away from distributed searching, focusing on the arguably simpler model of ‘metadata harvesting’. Perhaps the strongest and distinguishing feature of OAI is its simplicity: by being ‘smaller’ than previous interoperability projects, it actually allows for more powerful and adaptable configurations and deployments. Key concepts in OAI include the separation of responsibilities of ‘service provider’ and ‘data provider’ and the use of community‐specific metadata sets (with Dublin Core as a lingua franca). This paper gives a brief history of the OAI, an examination of the protocol itself, and lists some of the current projects and future directions.