OpenURL Bits

Farewell, OpenURL bits

2007-03-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to say that this blog has outlived its usefulness (to me), so I won't be updating it any longer. If anyone would like to take over, please contact me and I'll set you up. How? Come on, you're librarians, you figure it out. :)

Why OpenURL?

2006-06-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

"Why OpenURL?"
D-Lib Magazine
May 2006
Ann Apps and Ross MacIntyre

Abstract
The improvement of access to scholarly literature caused by electronic journal publishing quickly led to the wish for seamless linking to referenced articles. This article looks at the evolution of linking technologies with a particular focus on OpenURL, now a NISO standard. The implications for stakeholders in the supply chain are explored, including publishers, intermediaries, libraries and readers. The benefits, expectations and business drivers are examined. The article also highlights some novel, existing and potential future, uses, including increased user-empowerment and possibilities beyond referencing traditional bibliographic material.

Ingenta TOC alerts

2006-06-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

Information on adding openURL links or creating RSS feeds for Tables of Contents alerting (InTouch) from IngentaConnect can be found here.

{BTW, ingenta's links are inexcusably complicated to copy and paste, particularly for subscribers--like me--who wish to share information with non-subscribers--like you, Gentle Blog Reader. grr.}

Update: Kirsty Meddings, Product Development Manager for IngentaConnect, was kind enough to send me a link to a web page that links to detailed instructions on how to create links within IngentaConnect, including how to construct openURLs that link to articles. It doesn't, imho, address the problem that I refer to above, where URLs are rewritten to contain the name of the subscribing library, but it's a great reference for creating links to journals and articles. Thanks, Kirsty.

ICPSR members...

2006-06-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

Can fill out this form to begin implementation of OpenURL links in ICPSR. I don't yet know what this looks like (as I just filled out the form myself).

SFX @ Galileo

2006-04-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Galileo, the state-wide virtual library of Georgia, is conducting a massive upgrade that includes EZProxy, SFX, Metalib and WebFeat (yes, two federated search products). Information about the SFX installation is here.

SFX info from Georgia State U

2006-04-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Georgia State University Library Acquisitions Department maintains a page on their SFX service, which they call "Find It." It includes a FAQ, two Flash tutorials, instructions for creating and important MARC records [DOC] from SFX into their Voyager catalog, and use statistics [XLS].

Paper on linking from Melvyl (CDL)

2006-04-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

The California Digital Library published the results of focus groups [PDF] with UC public services librarians on linking to online resources from their shared catalog, Melvyl. Currently, libraries assign a Persistent Identifier to each resource, which resides in the MARC record's 856 field. The upshot is that librarians feel it's important to link to their SFX menu (UC eLinks) from the 856 instead of directly to the resource.

See also the entire Evaluation and Assessment reports page for usability and other studies relative to the UC eLinks project.

The California Digital Library's OpenURL Metadata Requirements

2006-04-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

"Explains the information that vendors need to send to the CDL SFX server." [PDF]

Technical difficulties...

2006-03-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

I went to add an item to this blog the other day and discovered that it had disappeared from my Blogger dashboard, and that the URL was no longer valid. I sent an email to blogger tech support but got no help there (you get what you pay for, I guess). Meanwhile, I'll be rebuilding the blog as I have time from a copy cached by Google, viewable, of course, until Google indexes this copy. Stay tuned...

CrossRef resolver

2006-02-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

The CrossRef OpenURL resolver might come in handy soon, as we examine the CrossRef links that appear for our holdings.

OCOinS

2006-02-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

Still wrapping my head around OpenURL ContextObject in SPAN; sounds like it might have real potential. This specification would allow authors to embed bibliographic citation metadata into HTML. From the site:

Open Access, public domain, and pay-per-use publishers typically do not have "subscribers" and have difficulty discovering a user's institutional affiliation which is needed to make an OpenURL. Embedded metadata can be used by client-side software to add links to non-subscription based content. This method of providing OpenURL links to users by combining embedded metadata with client side link activation has been called "latent OpenURL".

Very cool.

Wikipedia speaks

2006-02-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

Of course, there's a Wikipedia entry for OpenURL. IMHO, it's a bit sparse.

Ingenta Customized Gateway Admin Guide

2005-06-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

This doesn't really have anything to do with OpenURL, but it's a useful, hard-to-find item:

Gateway Administration Module [PDF]

Two Recent Articles

2005-03-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

"Keeping Pace with OpenURL: a Perspective," by Carol H. Wu, appears in vol 47, no 1/2 of the Serials Librarian (2004). In it, Wu gives a brief overview of OpenURL and discusses in detail the implementation of Innovative Interfaces, Inc's OpenURL solution, WebBridge. She concludes that while OpenURL has been invaluable in improving the research process, their particular experience was hampered by lack of staff time and commitment. (They should have used Article Linker!!)

"Assessment of Full-text Sources Used by Serials Management Systems, OpenURL Link Resolvers, and Imported E-Journal Marc Records," by Xiaotian Chen is a fairly scathing indictment of the data provided by vendors to these important serials resources. Still the biggest problem with OpenURL context-sensitive linking, the vendor data is often inaccurate, old, or just plain wrong. This article appears in vol 28, number 6 (2004) of Online Information Review.

Cybertour Presentation Posted

2005-03-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

I have posted the OpenURL Cybertour that I did at CiL 2005. You can download the slides (PDF), the slides with notes (PDF), or the full PowerPoint presentation.

Presentations are also available from the CiL 2005 site.

Articles about or referring to SFX

2005-02-28T21:18:00.001-08:00

ExLibris maintains a web page linking to various articles about SFX.

Try SFX

2005-02-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

"SFX it" with ExLibris' demo SFX site.

Documents on Linking Syntax

2005-02-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

If you are setting up your own resolver that doesn't already have ProQuest configured, you'll find this page on creating links into ProQuest very useful.

See also Linking into WilsonWeb, Linking into IngentaConnect (cached by Google), HLAS Online as a Source for OpenURLs, and the Google search for "openurl link syntax."