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The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an attempt to build a "low-barrier interoperability framework" for archives with digital materials. It allows people (Service Providers) to harvest metadata (from Data Providers). This metadata is used to provide "value-added services", often by combining different data sets.Initially, the initiative has been involved in the development of a technological framework and interoperability standards specifically for enhancing access to e-print archives, in order to increase the availability of scholarly communication; OAI is, therefore, closely related to the Open Access movement. The developed technology and standards, though, are applicable in a much broader domain than scholarly publishing alone.
The OAI technical infrastructure, specified in the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), currently in version 2.0, defines a mechanism for data providers to expose their metadata. This protocol mandates that individual archives map their metadata to the Dublin Core, a simple and common metadata set for this purpose.
Funding for the initiative comes from various organizations including the Joint Information Systems Committee .
PictureAustralia is an example of OAI-PMH in action. PictureAustralia harvests image data from Australian libraries, universities, museums and galleries. It then provides a single search sytem to access all the images.
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