2^nd Workshop: 6-7^th December 2002 in Lisbon

Open Access to Hidden Resources

For a long time libraries and archives have collected documents and preserved them for use. Now much of this material is being digitised, or starts life as digital. So the foundation is laid for wider availability. The aim of this workshop is to explore whether and under which conditions the open archive approach is strategically relevant and technically viable for these organisations.

The Workshop will evaluate whether, and how, the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH: http://www.openarchives.org), which was initially proposed to solve the problems of interoperability among e-print repositories of information, is relevant to the traditional archives and libraries. Requirements, standards, best practices, and solutions of the traditional archival and library communities to interoperability problems will be analysed and compared with the features provided by the OAI-PMH. The challenges to be addressed in constructing harvesting and search services for library and archival material will also be highlighted, with the intention of establishing a co-operation in preparing the conditions for a wider availability of the resources that are now hidden in European libraries and archives.

The workshop will consist of both presentations given by invited speakers and small groups breakout sessions where the participants can discuss key issues, such as:

• How far OAI-PMH is applicable to the electronic records of traditional archives, whether historical or 'born digital' assets?
• To what extent OAI-PMH and Dublin Core have been tried out and accepted in the library community;
• Can OAI-PMH enable innovative ways of cross-domain collaboration between the archival and library communities?
• How far OAI-PMH crosses over with other interoperability standards and concepts, such as the traditional Z39.50 or the innovative Web Services?

A tutorial on the implementation of OAI-PMH will be held the day before the workshop for those people that are not familiar with this protocol. One of the workshop speakers will be a representative of the OAI who will provide an update of OAI activities.

The discussions and results of the Workshop will be summarised in a Workshop report that will be published on the OA-Forum website (http://www.oaforum.org/documents/).

Who should attend

• archivists and librarians who are considering opening their repositories of information;
• technical, research and project managers who are interested in providing services on interoperable open archives and libraries.
• decision makers in the area of libraries and archives looking for new strategic opportunities to promote their organizations and working areas.

Venue

The workshop will take place in Lisbon at the National Library:

Address

Campo Grande, 83 1749-081 Lisbon Portugal