OA-RJ project blog

What is the Broker?

The Open Access Repository Junction breaks down into two main parts: a Discovery tool and a Delivery tool. The Broker is the Delivery tool.

How does it work?

The fundamental task for the Broker is to accept an item for deposit, and transfer it to one or more locations. It will do this in one of two modes:

1. The depositing client specifies, in the metadata associated with the item to be deposited, the locations they want the item deposited. This is, in essence, an evolution on the EM-LOADER project.
2. The broker can use the Junction to determine appropriate targets before depositing as per mode 1.

The Broker follows the basic tenant for all internet hosts (Jon Postel, quoted in RFC 1122)

The Robustness Principle: "Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send"

The broker will work with depositing clients to accommodate their needs (where practical), and will always deposit into target repositories in a defined manner.

Why use the Broker?

The broker becomes a useful tool for deposit clients and funders/publishers that want to support Organisational Mandates because it deals with the trust issues:

Depositing into a repository requires a trusted connection – otherwise known as  a user account. When one tries to scale this up to connect all funders, publishers, and/or personal deposit tools to all repositories, then it quickly becomes apparent that such a multitude of connections can never scale. The broker helps to minimise this problem because it requires external depositors to register (which gives them credentials to deposit into the broker), and all deposit targets register with the broker (giving the broker credentials to deposit into them) – thus every deposit is easy, and every deposit is traceable.