Extended-Linking Services: towards a

Quality Web

Eric F. Van de VeldeCalifornia Institute of

Technologyevdv@library.caltech.edu

Extended-Linking Services: SFX

Software: H. Van de

Sompel (British Library)

P. Hochstenbach (U. of Ghent)

O. Beit-Arie (Ex Libris (USA), Inc.)

CIT Implementation: B. Coles J. McDonald

Demonstration

Extended-Linking Services: OpenURL

What is an OpenURL?Why do we need OpenURL?Who works on OpenURL?

1. An Existing Commercial Service

2. Standardization

What is an OpenURL? Transportable Metadata Format

Transportable Between information services

Metadata Initial Focus: bibliographic Down the road: any information society

Format Embedded in HTTP GET or POST request

Caveat………. Concrete

examples for illustration only†

Standardization has barely started.

Vocabulary may change.

NOTHING is final.†Adapted from OpenURL Syntax Description, Draft May 16th 2000, Herbert Van de Sompel, Patrick Hochstenbach, and Oren Beit-Arie.

OpenURL Draft Example 1 http://serv.uni.edu/rmenu?id=doi:123/3456

http://serv.uni.edu/rmenuThe resolver that takes OpenURL as input.The resolver is NOT part of the OpenURL.Resolver actions are NOT part of the OpenURL.The resolver may be proprietary.

id=doi:123/3456OpenURL (before escape encoding) of an Object

that has a Digital Object Identifier.

OpenURL Draft Example 2 …?id=oai:arXiv:physics/0003005

&id=pmid:202123OpenURL of Object with

Open Archives Identifier (LANL arXiv) and PubMed Identifier.

OpenURL Draft Example 3 …?issn=1234-

5678&date=1998&volume=12&issue=2&spage=134

OpenURL of Journal Article In journal with ISSN 1234-5678 Published in 1998 Volume 12 Issue 2 Starting Page 134

Caveat………. Concrete

examples for illustration only†

Standardization has barely started.

Vocabulary may change.

NOTHING is final.†Adapted from OpenURL Syntax Description, Draft May 16th 2000, Herbert Van de Sompel, Patrick Hochstenbach, and Oren Beit-Arie.

Why do we need OpenURL? Persistent Links

Embraces DOIs: Provides alternate resolution of DOIs.†

Allows for other persistence mechanisms

For example, OpenURL resolver database may keep track of ownership and location at a coarse-grain (publisher/journal) level.

†Open Linking in the Scholarly Information Environment Using the OpenURL Framework, Herbert Van de Sompel and Oren Beit-Arie, D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 1, Nr. 3, March 2001.

Why do we need OpenURL? Multiple Links per Object

With OpenURL input, resolver may produce a menu of services.

For example: From journal-article citation to:

Full text A&I service Web search engine

From book citation to: Book reviews On-line bookstore

Why do we need OpenURL? Context-Sensitive Links

Resolver may know the user. Resolver may process the OpenURL

information in a manner appropriate to the user’s context.

For example: From journal-article citation to:

Appropriate copy Local document-delivery system

From book citation to: Local holdings (OPAC)

Why do we need OpenURL? Log of User Actions

User jumps from one resource to another.

Resolver may keep track of user actions. At end of session, resolver may produce

a log according to user specifications. For example:

Create a bibliographic database.

Who works on OpenURL? NISO Committee AX First meeting was June 28th and 29th. Subscribe to the OpenURL listserv at:

http://library.caltech.edu/OpenURL

OpenURL: Major Issues Scholarly Information Society, extensible Structure:

Referenced Item Information Service Resolver Requester ServiceType Referring-Entity

By Value and/or By Reference Encoding, Terminology, Versioning

The Quality Web High-Quality Metadata Finely Targeted Services Goal:

Take users to information and related services fast, reliably, and narrowly.

Question: How does this “managed approach”

compare to automatic approaches? No guarantee for success!