OAI-PMH repositories : quality issues regarding metadata and protocol compliance, tutorial 1

This tutorial will provide an overview of emerging guidelines and best practices for OAI data providers and how they relate to expectations and needs of service providers. The audience should already be familiar with OAI protocol basics and have at least some experience with either data provider or service provider implementations. The speakers will present both protocol compliance best practices and general recommendations for creating and disseminating high-quality "shareable metadata". Protocol best practices discussion will include coverage of OAI identifiers, date-stamps, deleted records, sets, resumption tokens, about containers, branding, errors conditions, HTTP server issues, and repository lifecycle issues. Discussion of what makes for good, shareable metadata will cover topics including character encoding, namespace and XML schema issues, metadata crosswalk issues, support of multiple metadata formats, general metadata authoring recommendations, specific recommendations for use of Dublin Core elements, metadata authority, and examples of metadata bad practice. Implications of data provider practice for service providers will be explored (and vice versa). The tutorial will draw on current best practice efforts, notably a collaborative project by the Digital Library Federation and the National Science Digital Library (U.S.) to publish and promulgate an OAI and Shareable Metadata Best Practice document