OERSI

Spec sheet

Purpose

OERSI is a search engine for open educational resources in higher education, provided jointly by hbz and TIB since 2020.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Deployment

The OERSI team says it uses Ansible scripts to install the service, and the SIDRE software is available for reuse.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Integrations

The about page names twillo and ORCA.nrw as platforms integrating OERSI search; it also lists reuse in BASE, finc, and library search interfaces.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Founded

2020Read 28 Sep 2026 · oersi.org

API and downloads

An open API supports integrations, and prepared metadata is also available as regular downloads.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

API format

The search API returns JSON and is based on Elasticsearch.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

API usage

API users are asked to send a meaningful, recurring User-Agent string with contact information where applicable.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

API usage guidance

API users are asked to send a meaningful, recurring User-Agent string with client and contact information where applicable.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Bulk access

The API documentation describes querying metadata directly and downloading it in bulk using point-in-time searches.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Collection requirements

Resources considered for inclusion must be relevant to higher education, accessible on the web, at least partly openly licensed, and have acceptable basic metadata.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Does not host learning materials

OERSI does not store educational content; it harvests metadata from OER providers.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Limits

Users cannot upload educational content to OERSI because it does not store the content itself.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Metadata formats accepted

OERSI accepts collection metadata as schema.org markup with a sitemap, JSON over HTTP, XML via OAI-PMH, structured HTML with a sitemap, or metadata dumps such as JSON and CSV.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Metadata only

OERSI does not host educational resources; it collects and harmonizes their metadata for unified search.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Metadata search

OERSI collects and standardizes metadata from distributed national and international providers to offer a central search with filters.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Metadata sources

OERSI accepts collection metadata through schema.org markup and sitemap, JSON HTTP APIs, OAI-PMH, structured HTML, and metadata dumps, among other methods.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Metadata standard

OERSI's internal metadata profile largely matches the General Metadata Profile for Educational Resources (AMB).Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Notable API limit

Search requests must target the oer_data index; the FAQ warns that querying the generic search endpoint can return results from multiple indexes and cause duplicates.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Open API

OERSI provides a JSON-based Elasticsearch API for querying metadata and supports bulk access using point-in-time searches.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Open development

OERSI says its planning and development are documented on GitLab and invites feedback, bug reports, and feature requests.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Open source

The OERSI code is available under the MIT licence, and the underlying reusable software is called SIDRE.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Scale

In its fifth-anniversary post, OERSI reported indexing over 90,000 educational resources from 45 collections.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Search

It provides a central search across educational resources from national and international providers, with filter options.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Single-resource submission

OER can be listed automatically from GitLab, GitHub, or Codeberg repositories when metadata is provided and the open-educational-resources topic is set.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Support and participation

The team invites feedback, bug reports, feature requests, and suggestions for connecting new OER providers through its contact form.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Who it serves

Resources considered for inclusion must be relevant to higher education teaching or learning, web-accessible, at least partly openly licensed, and accompanied by acceptable basic metadata.Read 7 Oct 2026 · oersi.org

Where Specifiction places it

• Open Educational Resource Platforms#18 of 277.5