How to Use OAIster

OAIster can be searched by Title, Author/Creator, Subject, Language or Entire Record. Searches can also be limited by resource type (text, image, audio, video, dataset) and sorted by title, author, date and hit frequency.

Results allow further limiting by data contributor (i.e., where the record was harvested from), as well as the option to re-sort the data and return to the search page to revise a search.

Issues Regarding Access

Some OAIster data contributors have the same (or very similar) records as other data contributors. This can happen if one contributor is an aggregator of multiple contributors-- the records will show up in both the aggregator and the original data contributor. It's not always easy to tell which records are duplicated in our system. One of our potential improvements is to work on the display of duplicate records.

Sometimes records will look like duplicates, but will not be exact duplicates of other records. Data contributors can decide to place additional information in their record, such as enhanced subject fields or further information about the availability of a resource.

We work hard to provide links in all of our records, but sometimes these links are dead ends.

• A link may only provide more information about the digital resource, but without access to the digital resource itself.
• A contributor may have updated their records, but we have not harvested the new versions of those records, so a link might lead to a "not found" error.
• Some links offer access to digital resources only for certain types of users (e.g., if you are a member of the CIC institutions). See our collection development policy for why we provide access to these restricted materials.