Registering as a Data Provider OAI-PMH version 2.0

Data providers who support the OAI-PMH may choose to list their repository in the OAI-PMH registry. The goals of the registry are:

• Provide a publicly accessible list of conforming OAI-PMH repositories, making it easy for service providers to discover repositories from which metadata can be harvested. Repositories may also wish to expose a friends container as part of their Identify response as a parallel means for guiding service providers towards repositories from which metadata can be harvested.
• Provide a mechanism for data providers to ensure their conformance with the OAI-PMH specification.
• Provide a means for the OAI to monitor use of the OAI-PMH and plan future activities and strategies.

Please read carefully all of this instruction page so you understand what registration means and the choices you have.

Consequences of Registration
Protocol Testing
    Conformance testing for basic functionality
    Conformance testing for error and exception handling
Using OAI Identifiers for Metadata Records
Confirmation of Registration
Changing Registration Information
Validate or Register

Note: This document describes the registration procedure for OAI-PMH version 2.0. Support for earlier versions of the protocol was discontinued on 1 September 2002.

Consequences of Registration

By registering your repository you agree to the following:

• The OAI will immediately run a set of conformance tests on your repository. To ensure integrity of the registry, we will only register those repositories that complete these tests. An email confirming the results of the conformance test will be sent to the address specified in the adminEmail element returned via the Identify protocol request .
• The OAI will periodically retest your repository for conformance. In the case that your repository fails to complete the tests, we will remove your repository from the registry and send an email with information to help you return to conformance.
• The registry database will store all the information returned via the Identify protocol request:
  • repositoryName: a human readable name for the repository;
  • baseURL: the baseURL for making protocol requests to the repository;
  • protocolVersion: the version of the OAI-PMH supported by the repository;
  • adminEmail: the e-mail address of the administrator of the repository.
  • additional repository-specific description packages.
• Contents of the registration database are open for public searching and browsing. There are no plans for restricting access to the registry database.

Protocol Testing

The OAI-PMH defines a set of requests and the format of the responses to each of these requests, specified through an XML schema. A conformant repository must respond to each of the protocol requests with a response that validates with the schema. It also must respond to mal-formed requests with the appropriate errors and exception conditions.

Conformance Testing for Basic Functionality

A repository must successfully complete the following tests in order for entry in the registry:

For every protocol request, the repository return a response that:

• is valid XML (the XML successfully passes through an XML parser)
• conforms to the XML schema defined for the response

For the ListMetadataFormats request, the repository must:

• return at least one metadata format.
• in the list of metadata formats, return the mandatory oai_dc metadata format with the URL of the OAI-defined XML schema.

For the ListIdentifiers request, the repository must:

• return at least one identifier in a record header.

For the GetRecord request, the repository must:

• return a record with metadata in the required oai_dc format, given an identifier returned by the ListIdentifiers request.

Conformance Testing for Error and Exception Handling

A repository must successfully complete the following tests for error and exception handling in order for entry in the registry.

A conformant repository must return a badVerb error code when:

• the verb argument is missing from the request.
• the verb argument is not a legal OAI-PMH verb.

A conformant repository must return a badArgument error code when:

• the identifier argument is missing or is not a valid URI in a GetRecord request.
• the metadataPrefix argument is missing in a GetRecord request.
• the until or from arguments are illegal in a ListIdentifiers request.
• the resumptionToken argument is issued as a non-exclusive argument to a ListIdentifiers request.
• a ListRecords request is submitted without a metadataPrefix.

A conformant repository must return a noRecordsMatch error code when:

• a ListRecords request is issued with a date range (from and until arguments) from which there are no records that can be disseminated from the repository.

A conformant repository must return a cannotDisseminateFormat error code when:

• a GetRecord request is issued with a metadataPrefix that is not one of the valid metadata prefixes for the repository.

A conformant repository must return a badResumptionToken error code when:

• a ListRecords request is issued with a resumption token that was not received in a preceding protocol response.

Using OAI Identifiers for Metadata Records

Every metadata record harvested by the OAI-PMH has a unique identifier. The only restriction for conformance is that this identifier should be a URI that is unique within the respective repository. Data providers may choose, however, to adopt the OAI identifier scheme whereby their identifiers are globally unique within the oai namespace. The advantage for repositories of adopting this naming convention is that record identifiers are resolvable via future resolution services. OAI identifiers are formally defined at http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai-identifier.xsd.

An example OAI identifier is:

oai:arXiv.org:hep-th/9901001

In order to register your intention to use OAI identifiers, you must do the following before you register your repository:

• insert into your response to the Identify request the description package that defines your repository as a user of OAI identifiers.
• Supply as a value to the namespace-identifier element in that description package your domain-name. You may find it helpful to check the left-hand column of the data provider list first, to make sure your choice is unique to you.

Subsequently, when you register your repository, the registry server will note this description package in the process of conformance testing and test the uniqueness of your requested namespace identifier in the oai namespace. The email confirming your registration will indicate whether your repository identifier choice was unique. If it is unique, then your use of it will be recorded in the registry and you may create record identifiers using that repository identifier. If it is not unique, the email will say so. You may then choose another repository identifier and resubmit your registration.

Note: registration of an OAI identifier scheme does not commit you to using those types of identifiers for all of your records. It only reserves the repository identifier for your use if you wish.

Note: at this time a repository may only register one namespace identifier.

Confirmation of Registration

Shortly after registration you will receive an email showing the results of the conformance testing and (if applicable) your choice of repository identifier.

Changing Registration Information

In order to change your registration information you should simply re-register. Some instances in which you might want to change your registration information are:

• change of administrator e-mail address
• adoption of the OAI identifier scheme.

Note: a repository may not change its namespace identifer.

Registration

Validate or register your data provider.