diff --git a/doc/release-notes/9275-harvest-invalid-query-params.md b/doc/release-notes/9275-harvest-invalid-query-params.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..33d7c7bac13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/release-notes/9275-harvest-invalid-query-params.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+OAI-PMH error handling has been improved to display a machine-readable error in XML rather than a 500 error with no further information.
+
+- /oai?foo=bar will show "No argument 'verb' found"
+- /oai?verb=foo&verb=bar will show "Verb must be singular, given: '[foo, bar]'"
diff --git a/docker-compose-dev.yml b/docker-compose-dev.yml
index 6f8decc0dfb..10fe62ff6df 100644
--- a/docker-compose-dev.yml
+++ b/docker-compose-dev.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ services:
       DATAVERSE_AUTH_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET: 94XHrfNRwXsjqTqApRrwWmhDLDHpIYV8
       DATAVERSE_AUTH_OIDC_AUTH_SERVER_URL: http://keycloak.mydomain.com:8090/realms/test
       DATAVERSE_JSF_REFRESH_PERIOD: "1"
+      # These two oai settings are here to get HarvestingServerIT to pass
+      dataverse_oai_server_maxidentifiers: "2"
+      dataverse_oai_server_maxrecords: "2"
       JVM_ARGS: -Ddataverse.files.storage-driver-id=file1
         -Ddataverse.files.file1.type=file
         -Ddataverse.files.file1.label=Filesystem
diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/harvest/server/web/servlet/OAIServlet.java b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/harvest/server/web/servlet/OAIServlet.java
index 96a19acc0e8..233ca94f5fc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/harvest/server/web/servlet/OAIServlet.java
+++ b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/harvest/server/web/servlet/OAIServlet.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.settings.SettingsServiceBean;
 import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.util.MailUtil;
 import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.util.SystemConfig;
+import io.gdcc.xoai.exceptions.BadVerbException;
 import io.gdcc.xoai.exceptions.OAIException;
 import io.gdcc.xoai.model.oaipmh.Granularity;
 import io.gdcc.xoai.services.impl.SimpleResumptionTokenFormat;
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@
 import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
 import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
 import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
+import java.util.Map;
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException;
 import org.eclipse.microprofile.config.Config;
 import org.eclipse.microprofile.config.ConfigProvider;
@@ -256,10 +258,16 @@ private void processRequest(HttpServletRequest httpServletRequest, HttpServletRe
                         "Sorry. OAI Service is disabled on this Dataverse node.");
                 return;
             }
-                        
-            RawRequest rawRequest = RequestBuilder.buildRawRequest(httpServletRequest.getParameterMap());
-            
-            OAIPMH handle = dataProvider.handle(rawRequest);
+
+            Map<String, String[]> params = httpServletRequest.getParameterMap();
+            OAIPMH handle;
+            try {
+                RawRequest rawRequest = RequestBuilder.buildRawRequest(params);
+                handle = dataProvider.handle(rawRequest);
+            } catch (BadVerbException bve) {
+                handle = dataProvider.handle(params);
+            }
+
             response.setContentType("text/xml;charset=UTF-8");
 
             try (XmlWriter xmlWriter = new XmlWriter(response.getOutputStream(), repositoryConfiguration);) {
diff --git a/src/test/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/HarvestingServerIT.java b/src/test/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/HarvestingServerIT.java
index e02964ef28f..e77853d6495 100644
--- a/src/test/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/HarvestingServerIT.java
+++ b/src/test/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/HarvestingServerIT.java
@@ -860,7 +860,28 @@ public void testMultiRecordOaiSet() throws InterruptedException {
         logger.info("deleteResponse.getStatusCode(): " + deleteResponse.getStatusCode());
         assertEquals(200, deleteResponse.getStatusCode(), "Failed to delete the control multi-record set");
     }
-    
+
+    @Test
+    public void testInvalidQueryParams() {
+
+        // The query parameter "verb" must appear.
+        Response noVerbArg = given().get("/oai?foo=bar");
+        noVerbArg.prettyPrint();
+        noVerbArg.then().assertThat()
+                .statusCode(OK.getStatusCode())
+                .body("oai.error.@code", equalTo("badVerb"))
+                .body("oai.error", equalTo("No argument 'verb' found"));
+
+        // The query parameter "verb" cannot appear more than once.
+        Response repeated = given().get( "/oai?verb=foo&verb=bar");
+        repeated.prettyPrint();
+        repeated.then().assertThat()
+                .statusCode(OK.getStatusCode())
+                .body("oai.error.@code", equalTo("badVerb"))
+                .body("oai.error", equalTo("Verb must be singular, given: '[foo, bar]'"));
+
+    }
+
     // TODO: 
     // What else can we test? 
     // Some ideas: