Hi all
The BFI is working with UK regional film archives as part of the Screen Heritage UK project to create a 'Union Search' application that will allow the public to see details of all the archives' holdings via a single service. The system is designed to aggregate data from a variety of different sources and map it onto an agreed minimum metadata standard for film archives, which is then presented to the public via a web-based search interface.
My question is not about the front-end though: we are currently considering the best ways to extract source archive metadata, with eyes both on what methods can be supported by the present partners, and what methods are most likely to enable other film and video archives to participate in the near future. It is our intention to offer a simple CSV-based submission method for those archives with no accessible database online. However we would also like to offer a more sophisticated 'pull'-based alternative, for which OAI-PMH has been suggested.
Based on your insights, will OAI-PMH remain the standard for harvesting museum and archive metadata for the forseeable future? Clearly the Protocol has had a moderate level of uptake since 2002, but do you see the number of services supporting it increasing or waning? Do you think the technical burden of implementing the standard (at both ends) inhibits adoption? And are you aware of any other standards or harvesting methodologies that you think might become gradually supplant OAI-PMH in the coming years, or do you think it is here to stay?
Apologies for descending on your list and throwing in such a complex question - from reading the archives I could see the right expertise is here but I couldn't find an answer.
Thanks for any advice you may be able to offer!
Regards,
James Donohue
Archive Online Technical Manager
British Film Institute
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