Repository synchronization in the OAI framework

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) began as an alternative to distributed searching of scholarly e-print repositories. The model embraced by the OAI-PMH is that of metadata harvesting, where value-added services (by a "service provider") are constructed on cached copies of the metadata extracted from the repositories of the harvester's choosing. While this model dispenses with the well-known problems of distributed searching, it introduces the problem of synchronization. Stated simply, this problem arises when the service provider's copy of the metadata does not match the metadata currently at the constituent repositories. We define some metrics for describing the synchronization problem in the OAI-PMH. Based on these metrics, we study the synchronization problem of the OAI-PMH framework and propose several approaches for harvesters to implement better synchronization. In particular, if a repository knows its update frequency, it can publish it in an OAI-PMH identify response using an optional about container that borrows from RDF Site Syndication (RSS) Format.