Open Collections Protocol

Open Collections Protocol

Publish and discover collections like the web

Open Collections Protocol is the umbrella public framework for publishing and discovering collections as ordinary web resources.

LinkedCollections provides the architecture, and Domain Collections Discovery (DCD) provides domain-level discovery.

Read the protocol Explore tools Publish a collection

Built for practical publishing

This ecosystem is designed for museums, archives, libraries, local history groups, community curators, and tool builders who want a practical path to open collection publishing.

You can publish with familiar storage providers and keep control of your domain, rather than depending on one central platform.

A simple publishing model

1. Publish a collection manifest

Give the collection a stable URL with a machine-readable collection.json.

2. Link item and media URLs

Each item and asset keeps an addressable URL for reuse and long-term reference.

3. Add domain discovery (optional)

Publish a DCD document at /.well-known/collections.json.

4. Reuse across the ecosystem

Registry, indexer, browser, and TimeMap tools can consume the same web surface.

Many tools, one shared protocol

Collection Manager
Edit and publish collections as a standalone tool or embeddable component.
Collection Browser
Browse published collections as a standalone tool or embeddable component.
Collection Registry
Public-facing registry for known collections and publishers.
Registrator
Internal architectural term for the Collection Registry module.
Collection Indexer
Indexes published collections for search and discovery workflows.
TimeMap
Exploratory presentation layer for navigating collections through time and context.

Start with the path that fits you

Documentation landing Storage guidance Demo