The OAI protocol currently supports a simple mapping of metadata names to metadata formats, whereby a metadata record can be requested for exactly one record in exactly one format in a single GetRecord request. In the case of ListRecords, all records within a set and/or date range may be requested but there is still the restriction of a single metadata format. This is usually sufficient for simple harvesting with the intention of transferring a stream of metadata records from the source archive to a service provider. However, in some cases, it may be desirable to obtain the most complete metadata format or a set of metadata formats for an identifier. In order to accomplish this it is currently necessary to submit multiple requests with different parameters and this is not most efficient.

Report to NASA-Langley and OAI-Tech