OAI and NASA’s scientific and technical information

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI‐PMH) is an evolving protocol and philosophy regarding interoperability for digital libraries (DLs). Previously, “distributed searching” models were popular for DL interoperability. However, experience has shown distributed searching systems across large numbers of DLs to be difficult to maintain in an Internet environment. The OAI‐PMH is a move away from distributed searching, focusing on the arguably simpler model of “metadata harvesting”. We detail NASA’s involvement in defining and testing the OAI‐PMH and experience to date with adapting existing NASA distributed searching DLs (such as the NASA Technical Report Server) to use the OAI‐PMH and metadata harvesting. We discuss some of the entirely new DL projects that the OAI‐PMH has made possible, such as the Technical Report Interchange Project. We explain the strategic importance of the OAI‐PMH to the mission of NASA’s Scientific and Technical Information Program.