ltr: Vol. 42 Issue 1: p. 46

The intent of this report was to provide a broad, general overview of context-sensitive linking—specifically focusing on the OpenURL framework. In short, this report is certainly not comprehensive. In particular, the other linking issues briefly discussed in chapter VII (“Other Linking Issues”) have multifaceted situations that require more study to be fully comprehended. What follows is a list of sources and resources that point interested readers to in-depth analyses and specifications.

OpenURL v. 1.0

These resources specifically address and explain the OpenURL v. 1.0 standard, Z39.88-2004:

ANSI/NISO Standard Z39.88-2004: www.niso.org/standards/standard_detail.cfm?std_id=783
Registry for the OpenURL Framework—ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004: www.openurl.info/registry
KEV Implementation Guidelines: http://library.caltech.edu/openurl/StandardDocuments/KEV_Guidelines-20041209.pdf
NISO Committee AX Web site: http://library.caltech.edu/openurl/default.htm

There is an OpenURL electronic discussion list available at https://utils.its.caltech.edu/mailman/listinfo/openurl.

Two “idiot's guides” for implementing the OpenURL v. 1.0 have been created by Eric Hellman:

“Idiot's Guide to Implementing OpenURl for Journal Articles”: www.openly.com/1cate/ig.html
“Idiot's Guide to Implementing OpenURL 1.0 for Books”: www.openly.com/1cate/igbook.html

In addition to the myriad of articles cited in this report, the following articles are relevant reading about the OpenURL:

Powell, Andy, and Ann Apps. “Encoding OpenURLs in Dublin Core Metadata.” Ariadne 27 (Mar. 2001). www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/metadata/intro.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Powell, Andy. “OpenResolver: A Simple OpenURL Resolver.” Ariadne 28 (June 2001). www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/resolver (accessed December 9, 2005).
Walker, Jenny. “Open Linking for Libraries: The OpenURL Framework.” New World Library 102, no. 1163/1164 (2001): 127–133.
Lagace, Nettie. “The OpenURL and SFX Linking.” The Serials Librarian 44, no. 1/2 (2003): 77–89.
Walker, Jenny. “The OpenURL and SFX Linking.” The Serials Librarian 45, no. 3 (2003): 87–100.

D-Lib Magazine

D-Lib Magazine has been at the forefront in publishing articles relating to the OpenURL and other context-sensitive linking issues. What follows is a selected list of relevant D-Lib Magazine articles (in chronological order of publication), some of which were used as resources for this report:

Hitchcock, Steve, et al. “Linking Electronic Journals: Lessons from the Open Journal Project.” D-Lib Magazine (December 1998). www.dlib.org/dlib/december98/12hitchcock.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Van de Sompel, Herbert, and Patrick Hochstenbach. “Reference Linking in a Hybrid Library Environment, Part 1: Frameworks for Linking.” D-Lib Magazine 5, no. 4 (April 1999). www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/van_de_sompel/04van_de_sompel-pt1.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
———. “Reference Linking in a Hybrid Library Environment, Part 2: SFX, a Generic Linking Solution.” D-Lib Magazine 5, no. 4 (April 1999). www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/van_de_sompel/04van_de_sompel-pt2.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Caplan, Priscilla, and William Y. Arms. “Reference Linking for Journal Articles.” D-Lib Magazine 5, no. 78 (July/August 1999). www.dlib.org/dlib/july99/caplan/07caplan.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Van de Sompel, Herbert, and Patrick Hochstenbach. “Reference Linking in a Hybrid Library Environment, Part 3: Generalizing the SFX Solution in the ‘SFX@Ghent & SFX@LANL’ Experiment.” D-Lib Magazine 5, no. 10 (October 1999). www.dlib.org/dlib/october99/van_de_sompel/10van_de_sompel.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Van de Sompel, Herbert, et al. “The UPS Prototype.” D-Lib Magazine 6, no. 2 (February 2000). www.dlib.org/dlib/february00/vandesompel-ups/02vandesompel-ups.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Van de Sompel, Herbert, and Oren Beit-Arie. “Open Linking in the Scholarly Information Environment Using the OpenURL Framework.” D-Lib Magazine 7, no. 3 (March 2001). www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/vandesompel/03vandesompel.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Brand, Amy. “CrossRef Turns One.” D-Lib Magazine 7, no. 5 (May 2001). www.dlib.org/dlib/may01/brand/05brand.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Van de Sompel, Herbert, and Oren Beit-Arie. “Generalizing the OpenURL Framework beyond References to Scholarly Works.” D-Lib Magazine 7, no. 7/8 (July/August 2001). www.dlib.org/dlib/july01/vandesompel/07vandesompel.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Beit-Arie, Oren, et al. “Linking to the Appropriate Copy: Report of a DOI-Based Prototype.” D-Lib Magazine 7, no. 9 (September 2001). www.dlib.org/dlib/september01/caplan/09caplan.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
Bekaert, Jeroen, et al. “Using MPEG-21 DIP and NISO OpenURL for the Dynamic Dissemination of Complex Digital Objects in the Los Alamos National Laboratory Digital Library.” D-Lib Magazine 10, no. 2 (February 2004). www.dlib.org/dlib/february04/bekaert/02bekaert.html (accessed December 9, 2005).

Open Access

Information about Open Access is widely available; following is a short list of places to begin reading about the issues surrounding this movement.

The entire December 2004 issue of Serials Review (30:4) focuses on the many sides of open access and includes articles by leading OA experts as well as traditional publishers (profit and non-profit). Topics include author disincentives and OA (Rich Anderson); a survey conducted by the Joint Information Systems Committee in the United Kingdom about possible models for implementing OA (Fytton Rowland et al.); and access and impact of OA materials (Stevan Harnad et al.).
The SPARC Open Access Newsletter (www.earlham.edu/∼peters/fos) is maintained by Peter Suber (research professor of philosophy, Earlham College; open-access project director, public knowledge; and senior researcher, SPARC); “the primary purpose of the newsletter is to share news and analysis of the open-access movement.” Suber has also created a nice introduction to OA, which is available at www.earlham.edu/∼peters/fos/overview.htm.
Stevan Harnad has a list of his e-prints on online communication and open access available at www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/∼harnad/intpub.html.
Open Archives Forum (www.oaforum.org/index.php) is “a Europe-based focus for dissemination of information about European activity related to open archives and, in particular, to the Open Archives Initiative.” The site contains a tutorial for OAI-PMH, “OAI-PMH for Beginners” (available at www.oaforum.org/tutorial).

Digital Object Identifier/CrossRef

The Digital Object Identifier Web site has a list of white papers that provide more information about the DOI (available at www.doi.org/publications.html).

Likewise, the CrossRef Web site has a list of published articles about CrossRef (available at www.crossref.org/01company/13publications.html).

Miscellaneous Articles & Resources

The NISO workshop, OpenURL and Metasearch: New Standards, Current Innovations, and Future Directions, held September 19–21, 2005, offered the most up-to-date information about the OpenURL available. The presentations from that workshop are available online (at www.niso.org/news/events_workshops/OpenURL-05-Agen-FINAL.html).

The February 2004 (24, no.2) issue of Computers in Libraries focuses on the theme, “Making Standards Understandable.” The issue includes short descriptions of standards such as DOI, OAI-PMH, OpenURL, Shibboleth, as well as longer articles discussing standards as a whole, such as, “Bearing with Old and New Standards,” by Andrew K. Pace, and “In a Changing World, Standards Ease the Way,” by Janet L. Balas.

Carol Tenopir's regular “Online Databases” column in Library Journal has often tackled the subject of linking in electronic resources. Among others, the following columns (listed in reverse chronological order by publication date) are germane to the topics presented in this report:

“Google and the Academic Library.” Library Journal (Feb. 1, 2005): 32. www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA498868.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Open Access Alternatives.” Library Journal (July 15, 2004): 33. www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA434444.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Online Scholarly Journal: How Many?” Library Journal (February 1, 2004): 32. www.libraryjournal.com/article (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Predicting the Future of Databases.” Library Journal (Jun. 1, 2003): 33. www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA300127.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Designing Systems for All of Us.” Library Journal (May 1, 2003): 32. www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA292628.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Reflections on Two Decades.” Library Journal (February 1, 2003): 36. www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA270602.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Trends from the Industry Perspective.” Library Journal (June 1, 2002): 44. www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA218992.html (accessed December 9, 2005).
“Links and Bibliographic Databases.” Library Journal 126, no. 4 (March 1, 2001): 34.


Chapter 8: Suggested Sources & Resources
Jill E. Grogg

Abstract	“Imagine a world where library users never reach a dead end, never fail to find the electronic resources they have the need—and the right—to access. This is the ultimate potential of the OpenURL: to link, seamlessly, among a multitude of information providers—proprietary and open access alike. In a world where libraries must acquire, manage, and provide access to a host of search tools and information sources from a variegated group of content providers, the promise of the OpenURL is tantalizing indeed.”—*Jill E. Grogg, Introduction to Library Technology Reports* 42:1, “Linking & the OpenURL”** The latest issue of LTR tackles the “appropriate copy problem,” an important issue many libraries deal with when it comes to helping their users link to the “appropriate copies” in their collections‘ electronic resources. Authored by University of Alabama (UA) Libraries electronic-resources librarian and adjunct instructor at UA's School of Library & Information Studies Jill Grogg, the report also serves as a general survey of the OpenURL and context-sensitive linking. Explains Grogg, “Exploiting the OpenURL, particularly v. 1.0, means linking to more than just the full text of scholary journals.” In one of the chapters, “Innovative Uses of the OpenURL,” Grogg canvasses the efforts of many librarians and “other linking gurus” that are using OpenURL in innovative ways. Additionally, the report examines many other context-sensitive linking issues and includes discussion about Google Scholar and other freely available scholarly search engines, linking for open-access materials and digital objects, and OCLC's linking initiatives.


Article Categories: Information Science Library Science