primo in action session

This morning, I'm attending a session on Ex Libris Primo implementations. One point made by Paul Soderdahl, Director of library IT at the University of Iowa, is that OAI-PMH data provider sources can be easily integrated into Primo searching. He cited as examples his institution's CONTENTdm digital collections; additionally, he noted the option of bringing external content into the discovery experience.

At the end of the session, I asked a question about OAI-PMH harvesting. Given the current, tattered condition of my voice, I had walk to the front of the ballroom, to the podium, and ask my question (have you had challenges in harvesting OAI-PMH data provider sites, either because of Primo product limitations or because of the nature of OAI harvesting, which was designed in the specification to support coarse resource discovery?). Bob Garrity of Boston College noted that for University of Michigan e-books, OAI data was first harvested outside of Primo. In some cases, the harvesting process required some attention, but the overall results were good.