[OAI-implementers] requirement for oai_dc

[Thomas Krichel]

  You may be aware that all records available through an
  OAI compliant interface are required to be  available in the 
  oai_dc metadata format. 

  It has been pointed out that, since all elements in oai_dc are
  optional, this requirement does not imply that oai_dc metadata
  has to be available. The oai_dc record can be empty. 

  Independently of that observation, the oai_dc requirement is currently 
  under review by the OAI technical committee. It is alleged that out there
  there are communities that wish to share metadata about 

  (1) item that have no semantically valid oai_dc representation. This is for
      example the case when there are personal data being exposed. 

  (2) items where the creation of an oai_dc record would require stretching
      DC semantics beyond what it is actually meant to be doing. 

  I am in charge of preparing a review on this subject. To inform
  my review, I would be interested to have your opinion. Please 
  let me know if your community has a requirement under (1) or
  if you feel that the oai_dc data that you are already providing
  has questionable semantics, as alluded to in (2). 

  If you think that the requirement for oai_dc is fundamental 
  to your work, please let me know that too. 

  Please respond to me personally, I will summarize the state
  of the question later. 


  Cheers,

  Thomas Krichel                              mailto:krichel@openlib.org
                                         http://openlib.org/home/krichel
                                     RePEc:per:1965-06-05:thomas_krichel