Role of Crosswalks in DSpace

Crosswalks in DSpace are software modules that translate metadata from one format to another. They are used in two main contexts:

1.  Ingestion Crosswalks: These interpret external metadata formats and convert them into DSpace's internal format.
2. Dissemination Crosswalks: These convert DSpace's internal metadata format into external formats for sharing with other systemshttps://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC7x/Functional+Overview.

Examples of Crosswalks
1. Dublin Core to MODS: If your DSpace repository uses Dublin Core (DC) for metadata but needs to share records with a system that uses Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), a crosswalk can be configured to map DC elements to MODS elements.
2. Custom Metadata Schemas: You might have a custom metadata schema in DSpace that needs to be shared with an external system. Crosswalks can be created to map your custom schema to a standard one like Dublin Core or MARC21.

Using Crosswalks with Trove
Trove, managed by the National Library of Australia, aggregates metadata from various Australian institutions. DSpace repositories can use OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) to share metadata with Trove. Here’s how crosswalks facilitate this process:

1.  Configuring OAI-PMH for Trove:
•  We will ensure your DSpace instance has OAI-PMH enabled and configured.

•  Define the metadata formats you want to expose via OAI-PMH in the xoai.xml configuration file.  We have crosswalks designed specifically for Trove

1. Creating Crosswalks for Trove:
•  Dublin Core to Trove Format: If Trove requires a specific metadata format, you can create a crosswalk to map Dublin Core elements to the required format. For example, mapping dc.title to trove.title and dc.creator to trove.creator.

•  Custom Metadata to Trove Format: If your repository uses a custom schema, you can create a crosswalk to map your custom elements to Trove’s required elements.

1.  Example Configuration:
•  In the xoai.xml file, define the crosswalk for the metadata format:

<crosswalk>
<name>trove</name>
<namespace>http://example.org/trove</namespace>
<schemaLocation>http://example.org/trove.xsd</schemaLocation>
<stylesheet>path/to/trove-crosswalk.xsl</stylesheet>
</crosswalk>

•  The XSLT stylesheet (trove-crosswalk.xsl) will contain the transformation rules, such as:

<xsl:template match="dc:title">
<trove:title>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</trove:title>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="dc:creator">
<trove:creator>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</trove:creator>
</xsl:template>

Benefits of Using Crosswalks with Trove and other systems 

•  Interoperability: Ensures that metadata from your DSpace repository can be seamlessly integrated into Trove, enhancing discoverability.

•  Consistency: Maintains consistent metadata standards across different systems, improving data quality.

•  Flexibility: Allows customization of metadata mappings to meet specific requirements of external systems like Trove.

By effectively using crosswalks, you can ensure that your DSpace repository's metadata is accurately and efficiently shared with Trove, thereby increasing the visibility and accessibility of your digital collections