[OAI-implementers] Inquiry!!!

[Simeon Warner]

Arslan,

Your question is a little like the question "what is contained within a 
bag?" ... pretty hard to answer in the general case.

It seems that you really need a better spec for your project if you intend
to do anything with the metadata other than re-export it. From the OAI-PMH
point of view, "the metadata" is simply the XML block encased by
<metadata> tags within a record (identified by identifier, metadataPrefix,
and datestamp)
[http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/openarchivesprotocol.htm#Record].
If all you intend to do is harvest and re-export the metadata then you
need know no more than this.

For an introduction to metadata in the context of an OAI-based system, try
reading the Overview section of Diane Hillmann's "NSDL Metadata Primer"
[http://metamanagement.comm.nsdlib.org/overview.html]

Cheers,
Simeon.


On Thu, 19 Sep 2002, arslan javed wrote:
> Hi
>    Can any one give me an idea of what exactly is contained in the
> meta-data. My task is to harvest data from 4 data-bases and then make
> avaiable the contents on the website.According to the design the
> harvestor will refresh the data from the db after 1 week.Now will i keep
> the meta-data in some database so that when ever a user comes and
> requets for some data he doesnt have to again connect to all the
> databases to serach for the particular content.All that is to be done is
> that the web-site will connect to the harvestor which will contain the
> meta-data in db and then according to meta-data it will connect to
> particular db or the meta-data contains actual contents which can be
> used without connecting to the db for one-week.The main confusion i have
> is on the elaboration of meta-data.
> 
> If any one can help me in this regard i will be thankful.
> 
> Arslan
> 
> _______________________________________________
> OAI-implementers mailing list
> OAI-implementers@oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu
> http://oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oai-implementers
>