OpenURL: Pointing a Loaded Resolver Kristina Long Simon Fraser University Access 2003

Outline Projects OpenURL 101: Link Resolvers: Version 0.1 Version 1.0 knowledgebase link resolving logic administrative Interface

OpenURL and Link Server Projects GODOT Holdings, requesting and full text linking software used by COPPUL and ELN Parses incoming OpenURLs GODOTjake Full text link server used by GODOT and written by Todd Holbrook CUFTS Completely redesigned link server written by Todd Holbrook Parses version incoming OpenURLs. Provides HTML output for links directly from citation or XML output for use by software like GODOT.

OpenURL 101: version 0.1 Syntax for a URL containing bibliographic information Version 0.1 is simple to understand and implement 28 data elements for describing seven different genre: Bundles: journal, book, conference Individual items: article, preprint, proceeding, book item Includes field for local information

OpenURL 101: version 0.1 Example (without escape encoding): http://godot.lib.sfu.ca:7331/godot/hold_tab.cgi ?genre=article &sid=SAMPLE:citations &title=Phi Delta Kappan &atitle=A tale not widely told &volume=74 &date=1992 &pages=196-7 &issn=0031-7217 &pid=<an>743928749</an><authors>Doe, John; Brown Peter</authors>

OpenURL 101: Version 1.0 National Information Standards Organization (NISO) trial of 1.0 in progress – trial ends November 2003 Framework has been generalized so it will be of use for more than bibliographic citations (eg. legal documents, genome sequences)

OpenURL 101: version 1.0 !!!!! More information about differences between 0.1 !!!! !!!! Example !!!!

Implementing Incoming Version 0.1 OpenURL Links Minimal implementations (eg. ISSN only) Need parser for local information in ‘pid’ field Quality of data in OpenURL varies among vendors Vendor documentation often minimal or non-existent Vendor OpenURL linking feature can’t be customized (eg. link image or wording, window size, window name)

Link Server Software Most common application of OpenURL Components: Knowledgebase Link resolving logic Administrative interface

Knowlegebase Essentially a title list database: ISSN e-ISSN full text coverage (date, volume and issue) embargo period (days or months) vendor specific ID/code base URL DOI Local configuration information may also be considered to be part of knowledgebase

Knowledgebase: Vendor Title List Problems Lack all the required fields Poor quality or only intended for humans to read (eg. coverage dates in inconsistent formats) No easily machine readable format provided (eg. Tab-delimited) Not updated frequently Not easy to find on website or only available by email request

Link resolving: Storing Linking Information How to store linking information? Code (eg. Perl) using provided utility functions Link templates Procedure for libraries that want to add their own links to new resources

Link resolving logic: Issues Do you pre-fetch the link? Pro: minimizes bad links Cons: extra logic for linking module if not a proper API, then wording changes on vendor’s end may break linking module logic increases vendor/publisher site hits increases time to return results

Link resolving logic: Issues Do ISSN only lookup or do title as well? If doing title matching then: do you use a title authority file? – may be time consuming to maintain fuzzy mathing vs. false positives How to handle multiple hits from the same provider (eg. Article appears in multiple Ebscohost databases)? Need provider level de-duping.

Administrative Interface: Simpifying Configuration Make details of the implementation of links transparent to the person doing the configuration Minimize the amount of information required to configure the resource Make the configuration screen specific to the resource Provide site groupings for multiple branches or consortial environments

Administrative Interface: Data Merging Issues Which title list details need to be able to be overridden at the library level (eg. coverage, journal title)? Determine when the data displayed for a particular screen should be the merged, the local or the global data. Consider how to clearly display the merged data SQL not good at handling overriding data, so must be done by application code

Administrative Interface: Minimizing Duplication of Work Allow integration with external subscription databases (eg. Custom e-journals databases, Serials Solutions) How to implement integration? Live lookup on remote database. Upload dump of data (manual or automated) Either way must maintain mapping of resource names

Administrative Interface: Partial Collections When a library only subscribes to some of the titles on a title list eg. Springer, High Wire Avoid duplicating work library is already doing to keep track of full text titles in: Catalogue E-journals database (local or vendor)

Administrative Interface: Partial Collections (continued) Approaches for minimizing duplicate work: Do lookup in catalogue, but hard to be sure it is the same vendor – need more information in 856 Provide web interface to select titles Allow uploading of local ISSN lists