OAI PMH

What is this service?

The Datahub OAI-PMH Service allows you to harvest metadata using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH v2) so that it can be integrated into other services or applications.

Who can use this service?

This service is meant to be accessed by OAI-PMH compliant harvesters or any application that issues OAI-PMH requests. The service base address is https://datahub.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/oai/ and the service identifier is available here.

What is OAI-PMH?

In brief, OAI-PMH provides a set of services that enables exposure and harvesting of repository metadata. The protocol is comprised of six verbs that specify the service being invoked, they are:

  • Identify - used to retrieve information about the repository.
  • ListIdentifiers - used to retrieve record headers from the repository.
  • ListRecords - used to harvest full records from the repository.
  • ListSets - used to retrieve the set structure of the repository.
  • ListMetadataFormats - lists available metadata formats that the repository can disseminate.
  • GetRecord - used to retrieve an individual record from the repository.

Selective harvesting can be performed by the use of accompanying parameters. Available parameters are:

  • identifier - specifies a specific record identifier.
  • metadataPrefix - specifies the metadata format that the records will be returned in.
  • set - specifies the set that returned records must belong to.
  • from - specifies that records returned must have been created/update/ deleted on or after this date.
  • until - specifies that records returned must have been created/update/ deleted on or before this date.
  • resumptionToken - a token previously provided by the server to resume a request where it last left off.

The verbs and parameters can be combined to issue requests to the service such as:

  • https://datahub.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/oai/?verb=Identify
  • https://datahub.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/oai/?verb=ListIdentifiers&metadataPrefix=oai_lido
  • https://datahub.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/oai/?verb=ListRecords&from=2011-06-01T00:00:00Z&metadataPrefix=oai_lido
  • https://datahub.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/oai/?verb=ListRecords&set=creator:james_ensor&metadataPrefix=oai_lido

For more details on the protocol, its implementation, and uses please visit the OAI-PMH web site.