ANSI/NISO Z39.99: a framework for synchronising resources between a source server and one or more destination servers using Web-based sitemaps with extensions for change lists, incremental updates, and push notifications.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A repository publishing a Change List of newly-added items every five minutes for downstream subscribers.
Is an instance
A multi-tier preservation pipeline using ResourceSync to keep replicas in step.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
Polling an OAI-PMH endpoint is not ResourceSync.
Not an instance
A bespoke webhook with no Sitemap-style format is not ResourceSync.

Editorial commentary

ResourceSync was designed by the NISO ResourceSync working group as a modern alternative to OAI-PMH that exchanges resources (not only metadata) and that builds on the Sitemap protocol already widely used for Web crawler hinting. Documents in the ResourceSync framework include Resource List, Change List, Resource Dump, and Capability List. Push extensions allow source servers to notify destinations via HTTP POST when resources change.

References

ANSI/NISO Z39.99-2017, ResourceSync Framework Specification.
Van de Sompel H., Klein M. et al., 'The ResourceSync Framework' (resourcesync.org).

Also known as

ANSI/NISO Z39.99

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="ResourceSync"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resourcesync" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resourcesync",
  "name": "ResourceSync",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resourcesync",
  "description": "ANSI/NISO Z39.99: a framework for synchronising resources between a source server and one or more destination servers using Web-based sitemaps with extensions for change lists, incremental updates, and push notifications.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-info-systems#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resourcesync",
  "sameAs": [
    "ANSI/NISO Z39.99"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:20",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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