Aggregation (WP5)

This work package has a mixed technical and “promotional” nature. From the technical view it is aimed at guaranteeing a programmatic layer which might enable easy integration of different digital libraries with no overhead for the participating libraries. From the “promotional” point of view it aims at promoting the creation of aggregations of digital libraries.

Such an action has the goal of positioning the project (and the resulting EEIG/product) as the main players in the market of internet based aggregations of digital libraries. Commercial exploitation of the aggregation activities will start since the third year of activity of the consortium (thus after project termination).

The access component to digital repositories has to be planned in order to deal with cases where several non homogeneous libraries need to be aggregated. Technically this means that the component will be developed in full compliance with the Z39.50/ZNG/SRU/SRW standards. Moreover a specialized web spider will be integrated in order to handle those cases for which only plain HTTP access is allowed. This workpackage will also take into account the problem of the harmonization of different classification methods.

In terms of data aggregation, the following portals will be realized:

The worldwide biggest online aggregation of libraries, i.e. The European Library will adopt the system since month 18 of the project.
The libraries involved in the project will be grouped into a single portal which demonstrates how libraries which are different in nature can be aggregated in order to provide a uniform access point to European Cultural Heritage. As a side effect of this integration the contents will be technically available also for initiatives such as EUDL. IPR issues will be clarified directly by library stakeholders. Crosslanguage search will be available for all the CACAO languages, namely English, German, Polish, Hungarian and French.
The creation of new portals aggregating major European libraries and digital collections in several thematic areas will help to promote CACAO. These might include:
- European History
- Mathematics
- Geography

Work packages leader:

Goettingen State and University Library

Deliverables:

D 5.1. ANSI/NISO Z39.50, SRU, SRW (former ZNG) and HTTP component for aggregation : M12 [confidential]
D 5.2. Integration with www.theeuropeanlibrary.org and aggregation of partner libraries: M18 [public demonstrator]
D 5.3. Thematic aggregation portals: M24 [public demonstrator]