OAI: Past, Present and Future

OAI: Past, Present and Future Michael L. Nelson mln@ils.unc.edu several slides stolen from Herbert Van de Sompel Open Archives Meeting Institute of Mechanical Engineers London 07/11/01

Outline • Past • original goals, participants • Present • evolution of goals, terms, definitions, current status • Future • observations, use in the U.S., next steps

Background • I met Herbert Van de Sompel in April 1999... • we spoke of a demonstration project he had in mind and had received sponsorship from Paul Ginsparg and Rick Luce • We wanted to demonstrate a multi-disciplinary DL that leveraged the large number of high quality, yet often isolated, tech report servers, e-print servers, etc. • most DLs had grown up along single disciplines • little to no interoperability, “gardens” of DLs

The Rise and Fall of Distributed Searching • wholesale distributed searching, popular at the time, is attractive in theory but troublesome in practice • Davis & Lagoze, JASIS 51(3), pp. 273-80 • Powell & French, Proc 5th ACM DL, pp. 264-265 • distributed searching of N nodes still viable, but only for small values of N • NCSTRL: N > 100; bad • NTRS/NIX: N<=20; ok (but could be better)

The Rise and Fall of Distributed Searching • Other problems of distributed searching (from STARTS) • source-metadata problem • how do you know which nodes to search? • query-language problem • syntax varies and drifts over time between the various nodes • rank-merging problem • how do you meaningfully merge multiple result sets? • Temptations: • centralize all functions • “everything will be done at X” • standardize on a single product • “everyone will use system Y”

Universal Preprint Service • A cross-archive DL that that provides services on a collection of metadata harvested from multiple archives • based on NCSTRL+; a modified version of Dienst • support for “clustering” • support for “buckets” • Demonstrated at Santa Fe NM, October 21-22, 1999 • http://ups.cs.odu.edu/ • D-Lib Magazine, 6(2) 2000 (2 articles) • http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february00/02contents.html • UPS was soon renamed the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) http://www.openarchives.org/

UPS Participants totals ca. July 1999

Metadata Harvesting • Getting metadata out of archives • not all archives support metadata extraction • some archives have undocumented metadata extraction procedures • not all archives support rich criteria for extraction • single dump concept only • Intellectual property and use rights not always clear • many policies akin to “don’t ask, don’t tell”

Metadata Formatting and Quality • Quality problems with: • record duplication • crucial missing fields • internal errors • ambiguous references to people and places, publications • Different formats! unproven intuition : n digital libraries results in O(n) metadata formats

Buckets: Information Surrogates in UPS • Limitations on intellectual property, • file size, transmission time, system • load, etc. caused us to focus on • metadata only • Metadata was collected into • “buckets”, with pointers back to the • data files (still at the original sites)

Value Added Services Attachedto the Buckets SFX Reference Linking Service, developed at Univ of Ghent, Belgium. - provides a layer of indirection between reference services available at a local site and the object itself SFX “buttons” are attached to the buckets themselves - communication occurs between SFX server and the bucket Adding other services to the buckets is easy...

Data and Service Providers • Data Providers • publishing into an archive • providing methods for metadata “harvesting” • provide non-technical context for sharing information also • Service Providers • harvest metadata from providers • implement user interface to data • Even if provided by the same DL, these are distinct functions

Data and Service Providers • Self-describing archives • Much of the learning about the constituent UPS archives occurred out of band… • Given an unknown archive, we should be able to algorithmically determine the nature of the archive Native harvesting interface Input interface Native end-user interface Provider Input interface Provider Native end-user interface No machine based way to extract metadata… Machine and user interfaces for extracting metadata….

Data and Service Providers Input and harvesting interfaces optional Native end-user interface Service Provider Native harvesting interface Native harvesting interface Input interface Data Provider Input interface Data Provider Native end-user interface Native end-user interface optional (e.g., RePEc)

Result… OAI • The OAI was the result of the demonstration and discussion during the Santa Fe meeting • Initial focus was on federating collections of scholarly e-print materials… • …however, interest grew and the scope and application of OAI expanded to become a generic bulk metadata transport protocol • Note: • OAI is only about metadata -- not full text! • OAI is neutral with respect to the nature of the metadata or the resources the metadata describes • read: commercial publishers have an interest in OAI too...

OAI Timeline Highlights • October 21-22, 1999 - initial UPS meeting • February 15, 2000 - Santa Fe Convention published in D-Lib Magazine • precursor to the OAI metadata harvesting protocol • June 3, 2000 - workshop at ACM DL 2000 (Texas) • August 25, 2000 - OAI steering committee formed, DLF/CNI support • September 7-8, 2000 - technical meeting at Cornell University • defined the core of the current OAI metadata harvesting protocol • September 21, 2000 - workshop at ECDL 2000 (Portugal) • November 1, 2000 - Alpha test group announced (~15 organizations) • January 23, 2001 - OAI protocol 1.0 announced, OAI Open Day in the U.S. (Washington DC) • purpose: freeze protocol for 12-16 months, generate critical mass • February 26, 2001 - OAI Open Day in Europe (Berlin) • July 3, 2001 - OAI protocol 1.1 announced • to reflect changes in the W3C’s XML latest schema recommendation • September 8, 2001 - workshop at ECDL 2001 (Darmstadt)

The protocol is openly documented, and metadata is “exposed” to at least some peer group (note: rights management can still apply!) Archive defined as a “collection of stuff” -- not the archivist’s definition of “archive”. “Repository” used in most OAI documents. OAI is happening at break-neck speed... Open Archives Initiative

Open Archives Initiative Open Archival Information System insuring long-term preservation of archival materials exposure of metadata for harvesting OAIS OAIS w/ an OAI interface http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april01/04editorial.html http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may01/05letters.html http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/us/overview.html

OAI Metadata Harvesting Protocol • Then: • OAI harvesting protocol originally a subset of the Dienst (NCSTRL) protocol • and originally called the “Santa Fe Convention” • originally defined an OAI-specific metadata format • Now: • OAI metadata format dropped in favor of unqualified Dublin Core • other formats possible, but DC is required as lowest common denominator • No longer dependent on Dienst • defined independently (though still easily mappable)

Overview of OAI Verbs archival metadata harvesting verbs most verbs take arguments: dates, sets, ids, metadata formats and resumption token (for flow control)

repos i tory supporting protocol requests service provider harvester data provider repository Identify • Identify / Time / Request • Repository identifier • Base-URL • Admin e-mail • OAI protocol version • Description herbert van de sompel

repos i tory supporting protocol requests service provider harvester data provider repository ListMetadataFormats * identifier=oai:mlib:123a • ListMetadataFormats / Time / Request • REPEAT • Format prefix • Format XML schema • /REPEAT herbert van de sompel

repos i tory supporting protocol requests service provider harvester data provider repository ListSets * resumptionToken • ListSets / Time / Request • REPEAT • SetSpec • SetName • /REPEAT herbert van de sompel

repos i tory harvesting requests * from=a * until=b * set=klm ListRecords * metadataPrefix=dc * resumptionToken service provider harvester data provider repository • ListRecords / Time / Request • REPEAT • Identifier • Datestamp • Metadata • /REPEAT herbert van de sompel

repos i tory harvesting requests service provider harvester data provider repository * from=a * until=b * set=klm ListIdentifiers * resumptionToken • ListIdentifiers / Time / Request • REPEAT • Identifier • Datestamp • /REPEAT herbert van de sompel

repos i tory harvesting requests service provider harvester data provider repository GetRecord * identifier=oai:mlib:123a * metadataPrefix=dc • GetRecord / Time / Request • Identifier • Datestamp • Metadata herbert van de sompel

Flow Control • ListSets, ListIdentifiers, ListRecords are all allowed to return partial responses, via a combination of: • resumptionToken – an opaque, archive-defined data string that when passed back to the archive allows the response to begin where it left off • each archive defines their own resumptionToken syntax; it may have visible semantics or not • 503 http status code – “retry after” • up to the harvester to understand this code and respect it, and up to the archive to enforce it

ListRecords harvester RDBMS Records 1-100, resumptionToken=AXad31 Records 101-200, resumptionToken=pQ22-x ListRecords, resumptionToken=AXad31 ListRecords, resumptionToken=pQ22-x Records 201-277 scenario: harvesting 277 records in 3 separate 100 record “chunks” resumptionToken

OAI Demos • Data providers • not really meant for end-user interaction, but Suleman’s “Repository Explorer” is an excellent tool • http://purl.org/net/oai_explorer • 30+ registered data providers • http://oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu/Register/BrowseSites.pl • many being used for internal purposes; not registered • Service providers • Arc, the first known SP harvesting from OAI data providers • http://arc.cs.odu.edu/ • 3 registered service providers • http://www.openarchives.org/service_provider/oai_sp.htm • several more known to be in testing or creation

Field of Dreams • It should be easy to be a data provider, even if it makes more work for the service provider. • if enough data providers exist, the service providers will come (DPs >> SPs) • Open-source / freely available tools • “drop-in” data providers: • industrial strength: http://www.eprints.org/ • personal size: http://kepler.cs.odu.edu/ • tools to make your existing DL a data provider: • http://www.openarchives.org/tools/tools.htm • also: OAI-implementers mailing list / mail archive! • service providers: • only bits and pieces currently publicly available...

OAI Observation: Front-End Only • No input/registry mechanism • OAI harvesting protocol is always a front-end for something else • filesystem, Dienst, RDBMS, LDAP, etc. • convenient for pre-existing DLs, but does not address “new” DLs • e.g., “we want to do OAI” • Bounds the scope of OAI • responsibilities and domain of OAI are still be discussed • tension between functionality and simplicity

OAI Observation: No T&C • No terms & conditions provisions in protocol • assumes all metadata has uniform access rights • how to restrict metadata to certain hosts? • introducing T&C would increase the scope of application, but at the expense of simplicity • how expensive do we want to make a “just-a-front-end protocol” ? • maybe T&C is a good application for sets?

OAI Observation: No T&C • Possible to use multiple OAI servers in a DMZ-like configuration… OAI requests from trusted hosts OAI requests from arbitrary hosts Public OAI Server Private OAI Server Source database could even use a separate copy of the database…

OAI Observation: No T&C • Possible to use OAI harvesting protocol in closed, restricted systems OAI 1 OAI 2 OAI 4 OAI 3 all OAI requests originate from these 4 DLs

OAI Observation: Monolithic • An OAI server has no protocol-defined concept of “other” OAI servers • backups, mirrors, etc. have to be resolved outside of the scope of OAI • scope vs. complexity again • fully connected graph of DLs harvesting from each other is unnecessary • cf. web crawlers vs. “gathers” in U of Colorado’s Harvest System • 3rd party harvesting interfaces raise more T&C and data coherency issues

if load > 0.05 redirect request http://blah/oai/?verb=ListIdentifiers HTTP Status Code 302 http://blah/oai/?verb=ListIdentifiers <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?> … <ListIdentifiers> … </ListIdentifiers> OAI Server buckets.dsi.internet2.edu/naca/oai/ 302 Load Balancing • Interactive users on main DL machine should not be impacted by metadata harvesting • don’t take deliveries through the front door • not part of the protocol; defined outside the protocol OAI Server harvester naca.larc.nasa.gov/oai/

OAI Observation: Data Coherency • In the interest of OAI implementer simplicity, several issues are left for the service provider to interpret • what is an update vs. addition? • in the NACA OAI interface, they are reported as the same and its up to the harvesting system to figure it out • deletions? • it is currently optional for OAI systems to mark records as deleted or not… • still left to the harvester to interpret

OAI Observation: Harvest Model • Frequency of harvests • all-at-once harvests? • initial harvest • resolving data coherency • frequent incremental harvests? • far more efficient for both service and data providers • Webcrawling vs. digital library models • webcrawlers: little to no a priori information about target • DLs: frequent harvesting of a small number of known targets • Realization: we know very little about how harvesting behavior… • are we optimizing for all-at-once, when incremental will be more common?

Potentially Good Ideas(but we’re not sure yet) • Sets • intuition: we’ll be glad we included them • arXiv the first to implement sets • their DL is roughly built on “sets”, so it was an easy mapping for them • a few other repositories have since adopted sets • Flow control • harvesting == denial of service attack ? • is “resumptionToken” solution not enough? too much? • need data providers with large collections and enough service providers to generate a load

we very much want this to happen... “The Return of MARC” ?! Potentially Good Ideas(but we’re not sure yet) • Metadata • Q: “Which format should I use?” • A: any/all of them… • lowest common denominator: unqualified Dublin Core • Again, little known about actual behavior • will DC be actually be useful? or too lossy? • will communities create/adopt specific formats? • will native (presumably richer) formats be harvested?

XML Observations • Not too much of a problem for data providers • XML is easier to write than read • Service providers… • XML can be pretty picky… a large “ListRecords” result can be invalidated with a single error • harvest in chunks? individual records? • author contributed metadata particularly a problem (e.g. control characters from copy-n-paste) • one advantage of resumptionToken is that it compartmentalizes bad data

Current NTRS / NIX Architecture • NASA-wide page that federates N center/project specific servers through distributed searching user search for “cfd applications” http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/NTRS http://nix.nasa.gov/ NTRS/NIX search for“cfd applications” search for“cfd applications” search for“cfd applications” search for“cfd applications” each node independently maintained . . .

Current NTRS / NIX Architecture • Or users can interact directly with the nodes of NTRS/NIX… user NTRS/NIX search for“cfd applications” search for“cfd applications” . . .

Proposed Strategy: Data Providers • Reduce the high interoperability expectations of distributed searching… • Each current node of NTRS, NIX and other NASA DLs become an OAI “data provider” • LTRS & NACA already have test OAI interfaces • LTRS http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/oai/ • NACA http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/oai/ • each node is free to run their own software / architecture / system / etc., but the method of metadata exposure is standardized • very low interoperability requirements • each node can continue to have a “user interface”

Proposed Strategy: Service Providers • NTRS, NIX and other well known, “destination DLs” become OAI service providers • no longer relying on distributed searching • harvest metadata from their constituent data providers • provide their value added services on local copies of the metadata • data remains resident at the local data providers

NTRS OAI Architecture all searching, browsing, etc. performed on the metadata here user individual nodes can still support direct user interaction search for “cfd applications” NTRS local copy of metadata metadata harvested offline, through OAI interface each node independently maintained . . . LTRS ATRS GTRS CASITRS content (reports) remain archived at the local sites

Additional Models • First step • OAI interfaces for data providers • DLs use OAI interfaces to move from distributed searching to metadata harvesting • Other possibilities • hierarchical harvesting • exposing metadata to other, possibly non-NASA DLs • harvesting from other, possibly non-NASA DLs • multi-genre DLs • re-apply the OAI protocol for harvesting / replicating content (not just metadata) • 3rd party service providers

NTRS … CASITRS LTRS ATRS NASA DLs in the Larger STI Realm DOE Publishers Universities DOD International . . . this could be a fully connected graph NTRS could also be a data provider from the point of view of other DLs; allowing the harvesting of NASA report metadata. NTRS could also harvest metadata from other DLs, and provide access to non-NASA content. We hope to influence the direction of the science.gov effort to use OAI.

New Kinds of DLs • Drawing from the same pool of DPs • different interfaces, capabilities and collection policies for: • public affairs • K-12 education • science & research • authors / librarians / managers • NTRS and NIX could harvest from the same sources… • be the same DL, but with different interfaces? • be replaced with a new, all-encompassing DL? • DL creators can now focus on collection management • “ala carting” their collections and sub collections • instead of fussing over syntax synchronization of remote search services

A Generic Harvesting Protocol • The actual uses of OAI depend on your relative position and concerns: • What is metadata vs. data? • Who is a SP vs. a DP? • Multiple OAI interfaces make many things possible: • restricted / public interfaces • Arc-like description of harvested archives • updates of log files, authority lists, etc. • Additional services can be built on top of OAI • content replication • awareness services

OAI: Past, Present and Future