http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/guidelines-static-repository.htm
A Static Repository, introduced here, provides a simple approach for exposing relatively static and small collections of metadata records through the OAI-PMH. The Static Repository approach is targeted at organizations that:
- Have metadata collections ranging in size between 1 and 5000 records;
- Can make static content available through a network-accessible Web server;
- Need a technically simpler implementation strategy compared to acting as an OAI-PMH Repository, which requires processing OAI-PMH requests.
A Static Repository is an XML file that is made accessible at a persistent HTTP URL. The XML file contains metadata records and repository information.
A Static Repository becomes accessible via OAI-PMH through the intermediation of one Static Repository Gateway. The restriction that only one Static Repository Gateway acts as an intermediary for each Static Repository reduces potential problems with large-scale duplication of metadata records among OAI-PMH repositories. A Static Repository Gateway uses the metadata records and repository information, provided via XML in the Static Repository, to respond to the six OAI-PMH requests for access to that information. Because a Static Repository Gateway maps a unique Static Repository base URL to each such Static Repository, harvesters can access a Static Repository in exactly the same manner as they access any other OAI-PMH Repository.
The relationship between Static Repositories, a Static Repository Gateway, and an OAI-PMH harvester is illustrated in the figure below. The Static Repository and the Static Repository Gateway are described in the remainder of this document. Implementers whose sole interest is the creation of a Static Repository may skip Section 4 that describes the Static Repository Gateway.