QUESTION: Could a small or virtual archive host a local (our server) Omeka instance and access items stored in the small/virtual archive's own collection stored at the Internet Archive?
Assuming that might work, and given there is an API for IA content partners to access, maintain, and extend the metadata associated with your IA collection items, is there a "sync service" plug-in or similar way known to keep an Omeka system in sync with its associated Internet Archive collection?
Truly sorry if these questions seem way out of left field. I did some doc, wiki, and forum searching and could not find specific or general information to shed light on this.
Thanks,
-: Jim :-
obo FactMiners & The Softalk Apple Project
Not out of left field at all. There are lots of efforts to make Omeka talk to other systems in this kind of way.
I don't know of any work to do this specifically with Internet Archive, though. In theory it would be possible with a plugin, maybe one similar to the Omeka API Importer. That uses Omeka's API to copy from one Omeka site to another, but I could imagine it being adapted to syncing with IA's API
Thanks for the reply @patrickmj. That's about what I thought. Since actual item files have to be stored someplace other than serialized in/out of an RDBMS, those files might just as easily be stored remotely with possible caching if performance is an issue.
And a syncing plug-in would be the way to go to surface a "switchboard" UI for configuring the hook-up for metadata and file updates.
While my question was in the context of small/virtual LAMs, my own interest is in the grassroots, indie #CitizenScience/#CitizenHistory realm where projects like my @Softalk_Apple project can use the low-cost scanning and storage service of the Internet Archive while still maintaining our own collection "home" as a stand-alone site for #eResearch and #eScholarship.
For example, folks will always be able to access the full run of Softalk magazine at the Internet Archive "directly" at: https://archive.org/details/softalkapple. But we are looking to secure funding to grow www.SoftalkApple.com into a social-game/research site WAY beyond anything that a collection hosted at the Archive can provide.
(BTW, we're working on a #TextSoup2SmartData entry for the current @knightfdn #NewsChallenge for #Libraries right now. The deadline for idea submissions this round is Monday, March 21st.)
This is especially true in the case where a project's goals are to "wrap" a digital archive with extensive (intergenerational) "oral" (AKA user-contributed, mostly written) storytelling/histories.
This question topic is leading to a follow-up question which I will ask in a separate topic and link to from here...
Thanks,
-: Jim :-