[OAI-implementers] New version of the PKP Metadata Harvester now available

[Mark Jordan]

Version 2 of the Public Knowledge Project Metadata Harvester is now 
available at http://pkp.sfu.ca/harvester2 . The Metadata Harvester is 
open source software, under the GPL license, developed and maintained by 
the Public Knowledge Project, a three-way partnership of the Faculty of 
Education at the University of British Columbia under the direction of 
John Willinsky; Simon Fraser University Library; and Simon Fraser 
University's Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing (CCSP).

The Harvester provides the ability to aggregate and search metadata 
exposed using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata 
Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Features include:

-Ability to harvest OAI metadata in a variety of schemas (comes with 
unqualified DC, the PKP (Open Journal Systems/Open Conference Systems) 
Dublin Core extension, MODS, and MARCXML).

-Flexible search interface that allows simple searching and advanced 
searching using crosswalked fields. Advanced searching of archives that 
share the same schema is possible using fields as defined in the schema. 
When creating crosswalks for searching, administrators can define 
elements as text, date, or HTML multiple select interface widgets.

-Ability to perform granular harvesting using setSpec and timestamps.

-Ability to perform post-harvest and pre-indexing 
filtering/normalization on metadata.

-Ability to customize the user interface using CSS and template-based HTML.

-Ability to add plugins for extending harvesting, filtering, and other 
types of functionality.

-Searching is highly scalable (creates an inverted index for searching).

Development of version 2 of the PKP Metadata Harvester has been 
supported by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries 
(http://www.carl-abrc.ca/), Simon Fraser University Library 
(http://www.lib.sfu.ca), and the Public Knowledge Project 
(http://pkp.ubc.ca/).

The Harvester is a PHP/MySQL application and has been tested on Linux, 
but should run on any platform. Administrator and technical 
documentation for the Harvester is also available. Community support is 
provided through the PKP Support Forum at http://pkp.sfu.ca/support/forum/ .

Mark

Mark Jordan
Head of Library Systems
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
Phone (604) 291 5753 / Fax (604) 291 3023
mjordan at sfu.ca / http://www.sfu.ca/~mjordan/