OpenBookInstanzen

OpenBookInstanzen is a software framework designed to deploy and manage multiple instances of an open book catalog platform. It is intended to support distributed libraries, publishers, and research repositories that require federated access to bibliographic data and digital assets. The framework emphasizes openness, interoperability, and scalable deployment.

The architecture combines modular microservices with a registry that tracks enabled instances of OpenBookInstanzen, their metadata schemas, and access policies. Each instance provides catalog services, authentication, metadata management, and replication capabilities. Data models align with widely used bibliographic standards and linked data vocabularies, such as Dublin Core, BIBFRAME, and schema.org, with support for JSON-LD serialization and OAI-PMH harvesting.

OpenBookInstanzen prioritizes interoperability through standard APIs and protocols, including RESTful interfaces, OpenAPI descriptors, and secure authentication via OAuth2 or JWT. It supports data replication and synchronization across instances, enabling local catalogs to stay consistent while preserving instance autonomy and licensing constraints.

Adoption to date includes pilot deployments in academic libraries and research repositories, where it is used to federate search, unify holdings, and share open access resources. The project is maintained by a community of developers and librarians who contribute through an open governance model and public issue trackers. The ecosystem emphasizes transparent licensing, open standards, and clear provenance of metadata and digital assets.