OAIPMHta

OAIPMHta is a Python library designed to facilitate interaction with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) protocol. This protocol is widely used by cultural heritage institutions, libraries, and archives to expose their metadata records in a standardized way. OAIPMHta aims to simplify the process of harvesting this metadata from compliant repositories.

The library provides a programmatic interface for clients to send requests to OAI-PMH repositories and retrieve metadata in various formats, such as Dublin Core. It handles the complexities of the protocol, including making HTTP requests, parsing XML responses, and managing potential errors or exceptions that might occur during the harvesting process. Users can specify parameters for requests, like the repository URL, the desired metadata prefix, and date ranges, allowing for targeted retrieval of information.

OAIPMHta is useful for researchers, developers, and institutions looking to aggregate metadata from multiple sources for analysis, digital preservation, or building custom discovery interfaces. Its straightforward API allows developers to integrate OAI-PMH data harvesting capabilities into larger applications without needing to implement the entire protocol from scratch. The library supports common OAI-PMH verbs like Identify, ListMetadataFormats, ListSets, ListIdentifiers, and GetRecord, ensuring comprehensive access to repository information.