For immediate release October 10, 2003
Beta Release of OAI Static Repository Specification
Ithaca, NY & Los Alamos NM —The Open Archives Initiative announces the beta release of the Specification for an OAI Static Repository and an OAI Static Repository Gateway. These beta releases follow a period of alpha testing during which implementations were written to the specification and functional details addressed. Public comment is invited during this beta period. Comments should be addressed to the OAI-implementers list. We expect the beta period to last for approximately two months from this release.
A Static Repository provides a simple approach for exposing relatively static and small collections of metadata records through the OAI-PMH. The Static Repository approach is targeted at organizations that:
- Have metadata collections ranging in size between 1 and 5000 records;
- Can make static content available through a network-accessible Web server;
- Need a technically simpler implementation strategy compared to acting as an OAI-PMH Repository, which requires processing OAI-PMH requests;
A Static Repository is an XML file that is made accessible at a persistent HTTP URL. The XML file contains metadata records and repository information.
A Static Repository becomes accessible via OAI-PMH through the intermediation of one Static Repository Gateway. A Static Repository Gateway uses the metadata records and repository information, provided via XML in the Static Repository, to process the six OAI-PMH requests for access to that information. Because a Static Repository Gateway maps a unique Static Repository base URL to each such Static Repository, harvesters can access a Static Repository in exactly the same manner as they access any other OAI-PMH Repository.
This release is accompanied by the beta release of an XML Schema for Gateway Descriptions, a container that may be used to describe OAI-PMH Gateways, and in particular Static Repository Gateways.
Contacts
Carl Lagoze; lagoze@cs.cornell.edu & Herbert Van de Sompel; herbertv@lanl.gov. The OAI Executive.