Re-set OAI harvester specs

[danscott]

Hi there

I am trying to upload content to OCLC WorldCat. The files have gone on okay but in the wrong sections. The explanation I have received is this:
"If your server is configured to send community-level setSpecs in the OAI configuration, and the OAI harvester (Digital Collection Gateway) receives these setSpecs before it recieves the collection-level setSpecs for your server, then the Digital Collection Gateway will configure the resulting records in WorldCat to be associated with the community-level setSpec rather than the collection-level setSpec. The reverse is also true; if the collection-level setSpec is received before the community-level setSpec, then the WorldCat records will be associated with the collections rather than your server's community.

The solution for this is to reconfigure your OAI harvester so that the OAI data uses the collection-level setSpecs for your data. Once this is done and your server is re-syncronized with WorldCat via DCG, the resulting records in WorldCat should be associated with the correct digital collections when viewed in WorldCat."

Can anybody advise on how to do this? If so, please can you email me at dan.scott@socialsciencesdirectory.com.

Many thanks
DAN

[asmecher]

Hi Dan,

Unfortunately this explanation is Greek to me and I wonder if it's not intended to be useful to users of e.g. DSpace since it appears to use that terminology. OJS is hard-coded to serve journal sections as sets, from the journal context, and from the site-wide context (which may include several journals) each journal is additionally available as a set. Currently it's not possible to rearrange the way sets are served, but I'm not clear why that would be necessary or desirable. I would suggest asking WorldCat whether those instructions are relevant to OJS; perhaps they can clarify.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[danscott]

Hi

I have now received the following reply from OCLC:
"The abstraction of the concept presented for DSpace **exactly** matches the abstraction of sets they've got in their repository software.

There are virtual groups of records that overlap. Instead of "communities" and "collections" the vendor has sets in three overlapping, non-exclusive types of sets.
1. "... to serve journal sections as sets, from the journal context"
2. "... and from the site-wide context (which may include several journals)"
3. "... each journal is additionally available as a set"

So, the user has three options for which type of sets to synchronize with WorldCat. I'd personally pick number 3 so I'd be sure to get a discrete set of records describing articles from Journal A, and Journal B, and so on."

They believe that this option is within the OJS set up, so I am asking if further help is available to say where and how.

[asmecher]

HI danscott,

The other option you have is to give WorldCat different OAI URLs for each journal. For example, if your OJS install is at...

http://www.myjournal.com/index.php

...then in the Site Administration interface you'll be given the following OAI URL for the whole site:

http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/index/oai

This will present all journals and all journal sections as sets, which is perhaps what's causing confusion.
An alternative would be to supply them with an OAI URL for each journal. If your journals are at...

http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journalone
http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journaltwo
http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journalthree

...then their journal-specific OAI URLs will be at...

http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journalone/oai
http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journaltwo/oai
http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journalthree/oai

These will only present the journal sections as sets; other journals will not be made available from those OAI URLs.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[danscott]

Hi Alec

Before I go back to OCLC with your reply - we only have one journal and the Base URL is exactly how you describe it (http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/index/oai). How would you go about re-setting the OAI URL to read http://www.myjournal.com/index.php/journalone/oai?

Regards
DAN

[asmecher]

Hi Dan,

OJS will serve OAI data to anyone who requests it, from either type of OAI URL. The OAI URL is something that you provide to OCLC, and which they use to contact OJS to extract data. If they're using the site-wide OAI URL (that provides journals as sets), they'll have to use the other one instead (that just provides data for that single journal).

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[danscott]

Hi

This was the final reply from OCLC. Any thoughts?

"The development team has reported to me that we cannot change the Digital Collection Gateway interface to make it work with your OAI repository out of the box. You will need to consider registering the multiple URLs (one per journal) if you wish to work around your OAI repository's current behavior."

I'm none the wiser, since we have only published one journal...

[asmecher]

Hi Dan,

I'm afraid it's a little murky here too. However -- even if you only have one journal, it'll still be listed in the site-wide OAI set list. I'd suggest just giving them the OAI URL to your single journal, rather than the site-wide OAI URL, and that may correct the problem.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team