A Scalable Architecture for Harvest-Based Digital Libraries - The   ODU/Southampton Experiments
  This paper discusses the requirements of current and emerging applications based on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and emphasizes the need for a common infrastructure to support them. Inspired by HTTP proxy, cache, gateway and web service concepts, a design for a scalable and reliable infrastructure that aims at satisfying these requirements is presented. Moreover it is shown how various applications can exploit the services included in the proposed infrastructure. The paper concludes by discussing the current status of several prototype implementations. 
Xiaoming Liu, Tim Brody, Stevan Harnad, Les Carr, Kurt Maly, Mohammad   Zubair, Michael L. Nelson