This week, after installing the PKP Open Archives Harvester application (in the same VM as my ePrints repository) I explored various service providers using links from The University of Illinois OAI-PMH Data Provider Registry with the following impressions:
colLib: which then linked to http://libriotech.no/ which is a Norwegian company that provides installation and management for library software systems.
digitAlexandra: which took me to a dead page at http://www.digitalexandria.com/
DL-Harvest: which took me to a page with a CSRF security error and Error: Document Not Found notice, so I tried another link from the page for DList which linked to http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/arizona/ and was able to access the University of Arizona Campus Repository. From there, since I was familiar with the DSpace format, I recognized that I could browse by Communities and collections and was able to make sense of what kinds of resources were there and how many. It is apparent that DList is the deepest area of the archive with 1477 resources. There was also a smattering of other data from the Tree Ring Lab, School of Music (Vern Yocum Collection, which actually got me hooked for a while) and Arizona Anthropologist.
Sydney College of the Arts Archive: which initially took me to http://gita.grainger.uiuc.edu/registry/details.asp?id=3537&sets=all#ListSets, where I could then find the link to the actual repository at http://va.library.usyd.edu.au/oai. It's not a very big repository, even smaller than DList, so again, the Browse feature came in handy. Now I'm looking for something larger scale that allows me to really search for something.
OAIster: taking my cue from the assignment, I figured I would take a look at this monster of library indexes at http://oaister.worldcat.org/. A search for Edward Weston gave a result of 2853 resources available, and took a whopping 19.51 seconds to deliver. Obviously, this kind of search would bring up a lot of records, but my attempts to utilize the OAIster faceted search to narrow the result were fruitless. My first attempt came up with an error message and the second attempt gave me a dialog window with a green spinning circle of death. I went back to the home page and tried again and got a message that the database I was trying to search was not responding. Try again. So, I tried the advanced search and didn't have much better luck.
My takeaway from the OAI section is that I have a better understanding of how resources are shared between institutions, especially libraries. I also get the feeling that it's not a smooth process and needs time and resources in order to make searching various collections easier and more reliable for the end user. The importance of metadata becomes more and more clear as I see the various pieces of the digital library/repository come together. There is much to do!
No comments:
Post a Comment