IEMSR Website

A static copy of the IEMSR Website (taken around April 2006) may be accessed at the following URL: (offline demo).

From the frontpage, one can browse for known agencies, or search (functionality unavailable on the static copy).

The IEMSR website is designed to provide an overview of the data held within it, rather than to promote any given activity making use of that data. It simply aims to provide browse functionality.

Let's first look at a simple DC record, like The Open Archives Initiative and the OAI DC application profile.

Even on a simple AP like this one, there is a lot of property information - one can imagine that this could be used for a number of purposes. One possible use to which it may be put is building up a simple search form for a portal wishing to provide repository search functionality. Since the IEMSR can be searched in SPARQL, outputting an XML-based results format, it is possible to transform this into a form using a simple stylesheet:

Query response, marked up using a simple stylesheet into a basic form.

Now the advantage of this is a little clearer if one looks at a more complex AP, such as RSLP. (The IEMSR website's view on RSLP.)

Results of an RSLP query, marked up using a similar stylesheet, would return a rather complex looking form. This is unsurprising, given that RSLP itself is really quite complex. Looking at the RSLP elements, it is clear that there are too many to simply produce a flat form. However, IEMSR permits us to use information about each element to produce a more appropriate form, such as a form in which mandatory elements are prioritised.

It is also possible to use the IEMSR backend to produce other services, such as for example RSS. A method of doing this is by making use of another XSL stylesheet to do the transform, such as this stylesheet. This, performed on query output such as this query, results in an RSS feed that can be read in any standard newsreader.