Chapter 4: Link-Resolver Products
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5860/ltr.42n1Abstract
“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.” —
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.
References
Christine L Ferguson, Jill E Grogg, '“Helping You Buy: OpenURL Link Resolvers' Computers in Libraries 24 no. 9 (2004): 17-25nMike Hoover, “Being a Good OpenURL Source” (see chap. 3, n. 43).nIbid.nMark Dahl, '“Building an OpenURL Resolver in Your Own Workshop,”' Computers in Libraries 24 no.2 (2004): 6nGrogg and Ferguson, “Places Linking Will Go!”, 52–53 (see chap. 3, n. 22).nCalifornia Digital Library, Projects, Programs & Services, “UC-eLinks,” Inside CDL: Providing Access to the Working Documents of the California Digital Library,” www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/uc-elinks/nOhioLINK: Ohio Library and Information Network, “Member Libraries—All Members,” www.ohiolink.edu/members-info/nThomas Dowling, telephone interview with the author, October 10, 2005.nGrogg and Ferguson, “Places Linking Will Go!”, 53.nThomas Dowling, telephone interview with the author, October 10, 2005.nSimon Frasier University Library – Software@SFU, “reSearcher: Open-Source Software for Libraries—About,” http://researcher.sfu.ca/index.php/plain/aboutnIbid., http://software.lib.sfu.ca/index.htmlnG.W. Brian Owen, Todd Holbrook, and Kevin Stranack, telephone interview with author, October 13, 2005.nTim Bucknall, telephone interview with the author, October 17, 2005.nJohn Weible, telephone interview with the author, October 10, 2005.nGeorge Machovec, Melissa Stockton, '“OpenURL Link Resolvers: A Practical Approach with Gold Rush,” Technical Services Quarterly 21, no. 4 (2004): 1–16; Steve Oberg, ed., and George Machovec, cont., “Bits and Bytes: Serials Systems Insights: Gold Rush: An Electronic Journal Management and Linking Project,”' Serials Review 29 no. 3 (2003): 230-232ncrossref.org, “CrossRef Deploys Free OpenURL Resolver,” (August 16, 2005), www.crossref.org/01company/pr/press081505.htmn
