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OAIster

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OAIster is a union catalog of millions of records representing open archive resources that was built by harvesting from open archive collections worldwide using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Today, OAIster boasts more than 23 million records representing digital resources from more than 1,100 contributors.

Access to OAIster

OAIster records are freely available through WorldCat.org.

The records also are included in search results for those libraries with WorldCat Local and WorldCat Local "quick start." In addition, the OAIster database is available via WorldCat Local, WorldCat Local "quick start" and the OCLC FirstSearch service to those libraries that subscribe to the FirstSearch Base Package.

The inclusion of OAIster records in WorldCat.org will benefit researchers worldwide by providing access to these digital resources—consisting of unique and often scholarly materials in many subject areas—alongside those resources already in WorldCat.org.

In January 2010, OCLC plans to release a freely accessible discrete view of the OAIster records. Access to this view will be provided through a URL specific to OAIster. OAIster records will continue to be indexed in WorldCat.org and integrated into WorldCat.org search results, and available through the FirstSearch service to subscribers to the FirstSearch Base Package.

Multidisciplinary resources

The records of the open archive digital resources available via OAIster lead to a wide range of materials and include:

  • Digitized (scanned) books and journal articles
  • Digital text
  • Audio files (wav, mp3)
  • Video files (mp4, QuickTime)
  • Photographic images (jpeg, tiff, gif)
  • Data sets (downloadable statistical information)
  • Theses and research papersHistory of OAIster