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National Library of Australia Digital Object
Repository
The National Library of Australia is progressively making
information about its digital
collections available using the Open
Archives Initiative (OAI) protocol for metadata harvesting. This service
provides access to metadata describing the Library's digital collections which
is held in the Digital Collections
Manager (DCM) database. The Digital Collections Manager database has been
developed by the National Library to record management and technical
information about digital collection items and digital surrogates. It is used
to manage the digitisation process, and storage and access to the Library's
digital collections.
The National Library encourages wider use of its metadata, and
harvesting is a free service. Please contact us
for advice on harvesting the Library's metadata, or to provide valued comments on your
experience in harvesting our metadata and for information on its use in other
Internet services. The following collections are currently available using
OAI:
Pictures
The Pictures Collection focuses on people, places and events
located on the Australian continent and its territories, and on the activities
of Australians overseas, especially in Antarctica and Papua New Guinea. For the
period up to the mid-nineteenth century, the geographic focus is broader,
encompassing European exploration of the South Pacific and the departure of
convicts and settlers from Great Britain. Around a tenth of the more than
740,000 photographs and art works in the Pictures Collection have been
digitised so far.
setSpec: Picture setName: Pictures Collection
including pictorial items from other collections
Music
The digitised printed music collection comprises all Australian
sheet music and some published albums held by the National Library published
before 1930. Music is defined as Australian if it involved an Australian
composer, librettist, arranger, subject or place of publication.
setSpec: Music setName: Music Collection
including music items from other collections
Maps
The digitised map collection comprises all sheet maps and selected
atlases held by the National Library published before 1900.
setSpec: Map setName: Map Collection including
map items from other collections
Manuscripts
The Librarys manuscript collections cover all kinds of
unpublished records including: letters, diaries, notebooks, speeches, lectures,
drafts of books and articles, research or reference files, cutting books,
photographs, drawings, minute books, agenda papers, logbooks, financial
records, maps and plans. The Library is undertaking digitisation of several
significant manuscript collections per year.
setSpec: Manuscript setName: Manuscript
collections including manuscript items from other collections
Books and Serials
Selected books and serials are being digitised as part of the
Library's contribution to collaborative online endeavours such as the
South Seas Project and the
International Children's Digital Library
Project.
setSpec: BookSerial setName: Books and serial
items
OAICat software
The OAI interface to DCM was created using the OAICat software
which is governed an OCLC
Research Public Licence. The
OAICat Open
Source project is a Java Servlet web application providing an
OAI-PMH v2.0 repository framework.
This framework has been customized to work with the National Library's Digital
Collection Manager database and the Library's Java application development
framework.
Licence Information
Harvesting of the National Library's metadata does not provide
automatic access to the Library's digitised images. Use of the Library's
digitised images is restricted by Copyright Law, and by agreements between the
Library and creators of works that have been digitised.
If you wish to download
specific images, please use the Library's Copies
Direct service.
Use of Metadata
Sites harvesting metadata using OAI from the National Library of Australia Digital Object Repository are encouraged to contact the Library by email at: dcm@nla.gov.au. Sites currently harvesting digital collections metadata from the National Library of Australia using OAI include:
BaseURL
http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/oaicat/servlet/OAIHandler
Protocol Request Forms
- Identify
- GetRecord
- ListIdentifiers (Resumption)
- ListMetadataFormats
- ListRecords (Resumption)
- ListSets (Resumption)
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