The fallacy of the multi-API culture : Conceptual and practical benefits of Representational State Transfer (REST)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to revisit a decade after its conception the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style and analyzes its relevance to address current challenges from the Library and Information Science (LIS) discipline. Design/methodology/approach – Conceptual aspects of REST are reviewed and a generic architecture to support REST is presented. The relevance of the architecture is demonstrated with the help of a case study based on the collection registration database of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Findings – The authors argue that the “resources and representations” model of REST is a sustainable way for the management of web resources in a context of constant technological evolutions. Practical implications – When making information resources available on the web, a resource-oriented publishing model can avoid the costs associated with the creation of multiple interfaces. Originality/value – This paper re-examines the conceptual merits of REST and translates the architecture into actionable recommendations for institutions that publish resources.