Harvesting data from an OAI-PMH site

You can do two levels of metadata harvest from a site: a full harvest or an update (or delta) harvest, which harvests only the changes made on a site. The initial harvest will be full harvest. Subsequent harvests can be full harvests or update harvests.

A full harvest completely replaces the files and file structure in the OAI-PMH harvest with the metadata that is currently available from the site. If you made any changes to the metadata of an asset, the metadata for that asset will be replaced with the newly harvested metadata. If you moved or deleted an asset from the folder, if the asset exists in the site, it will be replaced with that asset. Any changes you made to the hierarchy within the OAI-PMH folder will be replaced with the hierarchy on the site.

An update harvest only harvests the asset metadata that has been revised or added since the previous full or update harvest. It does not delete assets from your system that have been deleted from the provider’s archive.

Run OAI-PMH harvests at a time when other administrators are not likely to be making changes to the asset hierarchy or importing multiple assets. If someone makes a change to the hierarchy during an OAI-PMH harvest, the harvester may abort during the process.

To harvest data from an OAI-PMH site

  1. Log in to the Admin console.
  2. Choose Assets from the navigation pane.
  3. Choose Import/Export Assets.
  4. Choose OAI-PMH Harvest Sites. For more information, see Fields: OAI-PMH Harvest Sites.

  5. Do one of the following:

    • To harvest all of the metadata from a site, choose the Harvest all assets option for the site.
    • To harvest only the updates of a site, choose the Harvest new or modified assets option for the site.
  6. Portfolio disables the full harvest and update harvest buttons of all sites until the harvest task has completed running. You can work in other areas of Portfolio while the harvest is running. To view the current status of the harvest, check the Harvest Status field. You may need to refresh the OAI-PMH harvest sites page in your browser.

Related topics 

Managing OAI-PMH settings

Adding and editing an OAI-PMH site

Suspending an OAI-PMH site harvest

Deleting an OAI-PMH site