Metadata harvesting for digital library integration in Ukraine: a comparative study of the OAI-PMH protocol and VuFind’s efficacy

Purpose This paper aims to the problem of building an environment to support scientific research in connection with the development of Open Science in Ukraine. Design/methodology/approach An overview of modern portals for aggregating scientific data was conducted. Analysis of available tools and identifying problems that arise when collecting data from digital libraries and journals was conducted. The validity of choosing VuFind as a tool that allows building an extraction–transformation–loading (ETL) approach for data aggregation and bringing the format and values of metadata fields to one view was experimentally verified. Findings During the experimental verification, problems related to the fact that the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) protocol does not have strict requirements for the data structure, which lead to the complexity of integration, despite the fact that this protocol occupied a leading position, were noted. To simplify these problems, an ETL approach that allowed for the use of ontological methods (e.g. data mapping, linked data and dictionaries to improve the semantics of data for integration processes) was considered. A review of the possibilities of modern tools for OAI-PMH integration, which were actively supported and developed, was conducted. Originality/value This paper was an attempt to outline the problems that arose in integrating resources, with the aim of developing future integration protocols that would have simple means of semantic data validation and built-in ETL mechanism.