Yohanan Spruch - ExLibris Israel Eva Krall - ExLibris Deutschland The Open Archive Initiative in the Scope of Library Systems © 2001 Ex Libris Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Using OAI within Libraries How to use OAI within libraries? What services can be offered based on OAI ? What should be put into perspective in the context of OAI’s technical infrastructure regarding the set-up and architecture of library consortia? Can OAI be regarded as a tool to integrate heterogenous local library- and information systems?

Using OAI within Libraries ‘Easy-to-implement’ and ‘easy-to-deploy’ approach to interoperabilty established standards: DC Metadata Element Set Organizational infrastructure: stability and maintenance Libraries: hybrid catalogs and additional services based on harvested metadata

Using OAI within Libraries OAI provides a standard, simple means of maintaining a Central or a Union Catalog for any number of institutions operating with different local systems OAI as an alternative to the message- based replication of data between local and central systems. Hypotheses OAI protocol was implemented in the standard ALEPH500 system

harvesting of metadata using OAI protocol metadata returned in XML format Using OAI Protocol for a Union Catalog or a Union Index OAI Server OAI Loader Union Catalog Target, Date Range Mapping Procedures Local System

Using OAI Protocol for a Central Catalog or a Central Index OAI Loader OAI Server Central Catalog OAI Loader UPDATE of data relevant to the local system harvesting of metadata using OAI protocol Local System

Our Concerns In general… Lack of authentication and authorization mechanisms Lack of a comprehensive mechanism for error messages Missing an argument of “number of hits” No control over the number of records that are received at one time Persistence of sessions No exact definition of the Date used Granularity

Our Concerns No control over the metadata that is transferred; specifically, the information regarding Holdings. No support of the MAB format, i.e., no information regarding hierarchies of metadata information. And in particular, regarding the implementation within libraries…

Summary The OAI protocol was implemented both as a Server, providing data from an ALEPH system, and as an OAI Loader, providing a Union Catalog The Open Archive Initiative protocol allows a standard, simple way of providing a Union or Central Catalog for heterogeneous environments However, in the context of library systems, some refinements and enhancements might be required