Code4lib folks,

I have perhaps some stupid OAI questions.  We are moving off Contentdm and onto a platform with programmers that I’m pretty sure don't know OAI and harvesting at all.  We  have been thinking that it would be simple to convert our output of metadata that comes in a text format.  However, we see now that it drops the set structure (front and back of an image for example) especially since we have some collections that have different titles for the container (root description) and the images attached.  We do see a line with cpd but with different titles, it look like we might have to identify sets in Excel.  That sounds like a big job and a pain.  I'm thinking there is a better way with OAI but I don't know much about it.
My thinking is that we can use OAI to move this data instead of text files.  I'm sure it has the structure built in...doesn't it?  Is there a easy tutorial on OAI?  I’m not finding much for the layperson. And our new vendor is pretty new to library land (they are in museum land) and we doubt if they know OAI and I don't see easy ways to teach them.  Do you have suggestions?

Jill Ellern