Collection Harvesting

We partner with the UW-Madison General Library System to harvest metadata from Content Partner repositories using OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). We can harvest metadata from OAI-enabled collections in CONTENTdm, ResCarta or Omeka. If you use a different digital asset management system that supports OAI-PMH, we may be able to harvest from that as well.

Our preferred metadata format for harvest is Qualified Dublin Core (oai_qdc), but we can also accept simple Dublin Core (oai_dc). Each metadata record must include four required elements: Rights, Subject, Title and Type. For more information, see the Recollection Wisconsin Metadata Essentials and Recollection Wisconsin to DPLA Metadata Map.

UW-Madison harvests new metadata and refreshes existing metadata on a quarterly schedule. Please let us know at least one month before the quarterly harvest if you are ready to start an initial harvest, have added a new collection to your server for harvesting or if there is a change in your server URL.


Collection Harvesting Steps

  1. Review our policies:
  2. Submit the Content Partner Application. Your application will be reviewed by members of the Recollection Wisconsin DPLA Service Hub Steering Committee.
  3. Enable and configure your OAI feed. Depending on the platform you use, you may need to define a setSpec and setName. Each set will be considered a separate collection and harvested separately. We recommend using unique, descriptive setSpecs and setNames.
  4. Sign and return the Participation Agreement.
  5. We will preview your OAI feed, review your metadata and let you know of any necessary field mapping changes or other updates you may need to make.
  6. When your updates are completed, we will perform another review and then harvest the collection.

Collection Harvesting Costs

As of 2024, Recollection Wisconsin has made the decision not to charge any fees for onboarding or harvesting. Read more about this decision here.