Steps to Becoming a Data Contributor
To become a data contributor-- in the Open Archives Initiative this is known as a Data Provider-- you should follow a few simple seteps.
- Familiarize yourself with the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, available at the Open Archives Initiative site.
- Choose a tool to make your metadata available to harvesters such as OAIster. The most comprehensive list of tools is the Tools and Strategies for Using and Enhancing / Extending the OAI Protocol.
- Create your XML1.1 compatible, UTF-8 compliant metadata records. In order to be an OAI Data Provider, you must have your metadata available in Simple Dublin Core metadata format. However, we encourage you to also make your metadata records available in other formats.
- Test your resulting repository of metadata records in the OAI Repository Explorer.
- Register your repository with the official Open Archives registry. As part of registration, the repository will need to pass a number of tests, not all of which are the same as those in the OAI Repository Explorer.
- Send Tom Habing an email (thabing at uiuc dot edu) so he can add you to the UIUC OAI registry. This is a comprehensive list of all OAI data providers.
- Send OAIster an email (oaister at umich dot edu) so we can harvest you immediately. If we spot any problems with your compliance (protocol or metadata), we will let you know.
Other Useful Tips
A guide to OAI Best Practices is available that can help with metadata record creation and how to correctly implement the OAI protocol.
A web tutorial is also available that may help you step through the process of becoming a Data Provider.
OAIster is updated on a weekly basis. Only well-formed (UTF-8 and XML) repositories are harvested weekly. The rest are harvested on a monthly basis due to the time it takes to fix encoding errors. See more about our harvests in our collection development policy.
We do not accept snapshots of repositories anymore. If you are unable to OAI-enable your metadata at this time, you can set up a Static Gateway Repository. UIUC has the capability to do this with your XML Dublin Core metadata. Please contact either Tom Habing at UIUC (thabing at uiuc dot edu) or Kat Hagedorn at UM (oaister at umich dot edu) for further information.
