Web-Based Metadata Harvesting and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol
Carl Lagoze, Cornell University, USA
John Perkins, Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI), Canada
Basil Dewhurst, Australian Museums & Galleries On Line (AMOL), Australia

Workshop: Web-Based Metadata Harvesting

CIMI, in conjunction with the Open Archives Initiative, offers this two-part tutorial to assist museum professionals in understanding the potential of the Open Archives protocol and how it can be used by museums to enhance the availability of scholarship to researchers and specialist audiences via the Web.

The morning session is non-technical. We will discuss the history of the initiative starting with its inception in the e-print community, working through the goals and objectives of the Santa Fe Convention, and ending with a discussion of the current version of the protocol. Case studies will be presented to demonstrate the purpose of the protocol, as well as to underscore its place within the context of providing access to complex museum content. Discussion will focus on practical services that may be provided, and potential collaborations that may develop with existing content aggregators, to collect, distribute and provide access to existing scholarly museum resources.

The afternoon is focused on technical implementation. At the core of the Open Archives protocol is a concern on the part of its authors that it be easy to implement--that the technical barriers to implementation remain low so that it can have a chance to succeed and that it can be used by a diverse set of communities working with, and producing, scholarly resources. Beginning with an in-depth discussion of the components of the protocol, a sample installation will be analysed and examined as a means to demonstrate how the parts are constructed and what to expect of the final product.