Exploring an OAI-PMH repository

  1. Find the base URL of the OAI-PMH service: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/oai2_0
  2. Identify which repositories are available. For the repository you're interested in, note the sampleIdentifier: oai:lcoa1.loc.gov:loc.music/musdi.002
  3. ListMetadataFormats to see which metadata formats are available for that sample identifier: oai_dc, oai_marc, marc21, mods
  4. ListSets to see which sets are available. Note the setSpec for the set you're interested in.
  5. ListRecords (warning: quite a large XML file) with the set and metadataPrefix that you want.
  6. Store all the results and use them to build an interface to the items.

Note that in this example page some of the items are broken, as the identifier for each item doesn't necessarily match the corresponding media items, because the movie is split into two parts. This might be something that OAI-ORE can solve...

This PHP code implements most of the above.