On Thu, 31 Jul 2003, Shirley Sullivan wrote: > We have an eprint.org repository already established for documents, but are > interested to see whether it is possible to use the software for metadata > records only. or Dspace for this purpose. It appears to be essential for > both eprints.org and dspace to actually load "documents" - it won't > work for records only. Is this the case, or is to "operator error" here, > does anyone know? We would like to create an OAI compliant catalogue > containing metadata records for objects, but not load the objects > themselves. Any advice gratefully received.
Yes, eprints.org archives (and, for that matter, dspace archives) can be configured so they archive only the metadata and not the full-text (i.e., with null full-text). Both softwares can be used for many purposes, but the eprints.org software was expressly created to promote open access to full text, and not merely metadata archiving and interoperability. (The OAI protocol itself was originally created in the service of open access to full text, but, once the protocol's importance and potential power became apparent, the OAI was extended to digital archiving and interoperability in general, not just to open-access to full-text.) Here are the 5 major current categories of uses for institutional OAI archives. Both softwares (and others) can be used for all 5 purposes, but the eprints.org software, to repeat, is dedicated specifically to number *5 (self-archiving of full-text of refereed research). We are very anxious to avoid diffusing or slowing the movement toward the urgent and reachable goal of open access by diverting the eprints.org software toward 1-4. 1-4 are implementable, yes, but *5 is the paramount concern; 1-4 are merely distractions from *5 at this time: The 5 uses for Institutional Digital Archiving Software http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2670.html 1. Institutional Digital Collection Management (both institutional output, and bought-in content) 2. Institutional Digital Content Preservation (both institutional output and bought-in content) 3. Institutional Digital Courseware 4. Institutional Digital Publishing (e-journals, e-books, ) *5. Institutional Self-Archiving of Research Output (pre- and post- peer-reviewed publication)* The purpose of *5 is to maximize institutional research impact: http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#institution-facilitate-filling http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving.ppt http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/che.htm While we're on the subject, a variant and cousin of 4, namely, open-access publishing (BOAI-2) has lately been getting so much attention that the the misleading impression has grown that open-access publishing is either the only form, or the main form, of open access! Here are the facts, in context: (1) Most of the refereed research literature is still not open-access. (2) Of the small but growing portion of the refereed research literature that is open-access already, by far the largest proportion of that is open-access via self-archiving (BOAI-1, Archiving-5, above) rather than via open-access publishing (BOAI-2, related to Archiving-4, above). (3) Of the small but growing portion of the refereed research literature that is open-access already, by far the fastest-growing proportion of that is open-access via self-archiving (BOAI-1, Archiving-5, above) rather than via open-access publishing (BOAI-2, related to Archiving-4, above). The two open-access strategies (BOAI-1 and BOAI-2) are complementary, but it is important for researchers and their institutions to have the optimal joint strategy clearly in mind: If there exists a suitable open-access journal for you to publish your research in (about 5% currently), publish it there! If not (95%), then publish it in a toll-access journal and self-archive the full text (pre- and post-peer-review) in your institutional eprint archive. Stevan Harnad NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at the American Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03): http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html or http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html Discussion can be posted to: [email protected]
