A global network for underground documentation

The “Bulletin Bibliographique Spéléologique / Speleo Abstract” has existed for over 50 years and aims to share information on publications related to karst worldwide.

Grottocenter now provides over 120,000 document records for harvesting via this Open Archives server. We invite documentation centers and libraries to join this collective effort to preserve and share knowledge on the underground world.

Goal: Make all documentation related to speleology available and interoperable with modern library systems.

Using the OAI Server

You can connect any OAI-compatible catalog (such as PMB, Koha, or Omeka-S) to harvest metadata from Grottocenter automatically.

Try it now:

💡 You can also use filters such as:

  • &from=2023-01-01 and &until=2023-12-31 to limit by date
  • &set=grottocenter:books to limit by category

This server exposes metadata using the Dublin Core standard format (metadataPrefix=oai_dc), which is widely supported by library systems.

🔗 Need help? Visit our documentation on the Grottocenter Wiki to learn how to connect your system, use filters, and test endpoints.

What is OAI-PMH?

OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) is a standardized protocol used by libraries, museums, and archives to share metadata.

It allows your catalog or library software to regularly fetch metadata updates from Grottocenter with minimal setup.

Learn more: