The OpenURL and OpenURL Framework: Demystifying Link Resolution Washington DC, 29 th October 2003 Link Resolvers Explained Oren Beit-Arie Ex Libris (USA) Inc. The OpenURL and OpenURL Framework: Demystifying Link Resolution Washington DC, 29 th October 2003 Link Resolvers Explained Oren Beit-Arie Ex Libris (USA) Inc. © Ex Libris (USA) Inc

Open Linking framework and Context-Sensitive Link Servers The role of a KnowledgeBase Linking beyond the Full Text Beyond Linking … © Ex Libris (USA) Inc Overview

Origins of the OpenURL The Background: Distributed information environments Multiple information discovery services eg A&I databases Rapidly growing e-journal collections Need to interlink e-collections The Problem: Limitations of existing linking solutions Information providers – not libraries – control the links Links not sensitive to users context – the appropriate copy problem Links dependent on vendor agreements

The REAL Problem was… Libraries have no (or little) say in linking High maintenance of proprietary solutions Expensive collection not used optimally Users not well served

Solving the Problem The OpenURL Framework: No hardwired links eg from a reference to the corresponding full text Introduction of a new component in the link process - a Link Server (OpenURL Resolver) OpenURL – specification for interoperability between Information Resources and Link Servers

Linking I Source T a r g e t s OpenURL Link Server Site Specific A p p r o p r i a t e T a r g e t s Link to referenced work reference I Context Sensitive

The Open Linking Flow (basic) Link SourceLink Server MenuLink Target

Menu and services under library control Direct Link No Menu: Server-to-Server (API based on OpenURL)

For the librarian: Central administration of links (and e-journal data) Local control over what types of links are offered and to where they resolve Optimizes use of licensed resources Benefits of OpenURL linking For the user: Desktop delivery of full text when available electronically Expands the research horizons Consistency and accuracy of links

For the information provider: OpenURL standard for outbound linking – easy to implement No need for bilateral publisher agreements More inbound links – more traffic to site! Meets need of libraries and end users Benefits of OpenURL linking

October 2003: 10+ commercial link server solutions; other local home-grown solutions Hundreds of resources, databases and vendors actively participate in the OpenURL framework Hundreds (Thousands) of Insititutions Houndreds of thousands (Millions) of Users are being served…. The Result

What is the context in context-sensitive ? 1.OpenURL – A service-request that transports information from the link source (referrer) to the users (requester) Link Server (resolver) 2.Resolvers KnowledgeBase – Defining the librarys collection in order to determine appropriateness of services Two components come into play:

Entities in ContextObject/OpenURL: Referent (the referenced resource) Resolver (the OpenURL resolver/link server) Referrer (the information source) Requester (the user) Referring Entity (eg citing Article) ServiceType (what is requested) ContextObject Descriptors: Identfiers By-Value Metadata By-Ref Metadata Private Data Encoding: Key/Encoded Value (KEV) XML Others… Transports: HTTP(S) GET/POST Others (SOAP; OAI- PMH…) Registry NISO AX: OpenURL v1.0

OpenURL: A suite of HTTP(S)-based methods to transport representations of ContextObjects. Provides: More information about the network context more means to enable context sensitive and appropriate services Support for multiple ContextObjects (SAP-2) Linking beyond the Scholarly Bibliographic Information domain: - Museum objects, Learning objects, Geo-spatial objects, video/audio,… Linking beyond the Scholarly Information domain: - Cities, cars, people, companies,…

Context Sensitive Linking Framework Source T a r g e t s OpenURL Link Server User Specific A p p r o p r i a t e T a r g e t s Links to referenced works reference What to Link to? And how?

Potential services Collections Rules OpenURL Link Server KnowledgeBase Link Server – The role of the KnowledgeBase

KnowledgeBase is used to determine appropriate links to targets: Comprehensive KnowledgeBase delivered with the Link Server Contains a set of rules for linking to different types of targets Library localizes to match local subscriptions and conditions Requires KnowledgeBase Updates Link Servers KnowledgeBase

The Role of the Link Server Augmentation of data: Dereference Identifiers and By-Reference Metadata (OpenURL v.1.0) KnowledgeBase is used to normalize and enhance Metadata provided by the Link Source: The reference might not include an ISSN, yet the Target link (eg to the Publisher) often requires it Abbreviated titles Authors names

The Role of the Link Server cl=61/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin/cgi? body=linker& reqidx= (2000)L.45 Heckman, James J. Causal Parameters and Policy Analysis in Economics: A Twentieth Century Retrospective. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, v. 115, n1 (2000): genre=article&atitle=Causal Parameters and Policy Analysis in Economics: A Twentieth Century Retrospective&stitle=The Quarterly Journal of Economics&date=2000&volume=115 &issue=1&spage=45&epage=97&aulast=Heckman &aufirst=James&auinit=J OpenURL: Link to:

Holdings: – E-journals – OPACs – ILL/DocDel Extended Services – Citation Databases – Encyclopedias – Patent Databases – Search Engines – Subject Gateways – Internet bookstores – Research Tools ….. Libraries choose! All targets must have a defined link-to syntax (which is then configured in the librarys link server Knowledgebase) Link Server Services

Whats missing: Targets: no link-to standard ( some adopt OpenURL as a link-to syntax) Targets: Lacking description of collections (packages; date range; …) – missing standards ?.. Sources: good metadata Issues

Other Needs (1) In the beginning, most of the services provided were based on institutional affiliation (specified in the BASE_URL) More and more services and options require more granular attributes about the Requester for example: Conditional Services (faculty; tech services; undergraduate students; …) Personalization of Services; and more …

The Requester Requester (User) Attributes can come through: Environment variables (IP-address, cookies, certificates…) AuthN/Z Frameworks such as Shibboleth (Internet2/MACE project) ContexObjects Requester Entity (in OpenURL v.1.0)

Other Needs (2) An important part of the KnowledgeBase is information about the institutions collection: local collection Licensed resources And others Collections can be (and will be) distributed It is not the case that only the home Institution is responsible (licenses; creates..) for all resources that Users may have access to We need distributed rights evaluation

CDLDoEUCDavisResources of Information LandscapeUsers Perspective

Distributed Services UCD Link Server merged services CDLs Link Server OpenURL

Beyond Linking (1) Resource for Document Delivery / ILL systems – Query a Link Server for all electronic (and possibly also print) Holdings to facilitate docdel/ILL Especially relevant for consortia that enable direct consortia borrowing Based on a Server (DocDel/ILL) to Server (Link Resolver) query (based on OpenURL) Will make a good use of multiple ContextObjects

Central repository for ejournal subscriptions: OpenURL Generator A-Z journal title list Utilities to export and load ejournal records (eg: full MARC) into OPAC; Portals Research Tools: Eg: Capture Citation to create linkable Reading Lists (and other integrations with E- Learning Environments) Beyond linking (2)

New challenges for Link Servers Use of user attributes for determination of more granular link services (Requester-entity; Shibboleth) Distributed KnowledgeBase and the need to determine the actual collections for any particular user, regardless of administration/licensing organizations More varied sources and targets – beyond linking scholarly textual information (with OpenURL v1.0)

Link Servers Link Servers become a core component in libraries electronic resources infrastructure

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