VuFind®'s OAI-PMH server can be found at http://[your_server]/[your_vufind_base_path]/OAI/Server.

The server will not return any records unless the first_indexed and last_indexed fields of the Solr index are properly filled in (see Enabling Change Tracking).

Several aspects of the server (including ID prefixes, administrative email addresses and set behavior) can be configured through the [OAI] section of config.ini. See the comments in that file for details on how the settings work.

Out of the box, VuFind®'s OAI-PMH server supports basic oai_dc in a minimalistic way and is capable of exporting MARC records in XML format.

To add additional metadata formats, simply make changes to the getXML() method of the record driver(s) you are using.

Important: The server is currently coded to assume that all supported metadata formats are supported by all records in the index. In order to display only a subset of records based on the metadata format requested, it would be necessary to make some minor adjustments to the code and the underlying Solr index. If there is any demand for this feature, please open a JIRA ticket.

Not everyone is going to want to expose their VuFind® records through OAI-PMH, but in some cases it may be convenient – if VuFind® is how you present your holdings to the world, it makes sense to offer the data to automated agents as well as to humans. If you have already gone through the complicated work of getting data out of your ILS and into VuFind®, using OAI-PMH may be a way of saving you from having to repeat that effort to send records to other places.

If you have found this feature useful, feel free to add comments and advice here!

For a general introduction to the OAI-PMH protocol, see this tutorial.

For more on OAI-PMH, see the OAI-PMH Server and Harvest Functionality video.