OpenURL: Brief Bibliography
Walt Crawford
Prepared for OSU "Technology for the Rest of Us" Seminars
The Basics and BeyondFor a quick commentary on the process of an OpenURL, I would recommend the "OpenURL" essay in Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 4:2, Midwinter 2004 (a special "glossary issue"), The two-page essay begins on page 13 of the 20-page issue.
You should read some or all of the following, beginning with an overview from the creator of OpenURL, Herbert Van de Sompel:
Van de Sompel, Herbert, and Oren Beit-Arie. "Open Linking in the Scholarly Information Environment Using the OpenURL Framework." D-Lib Magazine 7 (March 2001).
Crawford, Walt. "The Crawford Files: OpenURL: Standards Can Be Fun!." American Libraries 33 (August 2002) (Web version available: Go to www.ala.org, click on American Libraries link, click on The Crawford Files, click on 2002 columns.)
Crawford, Walt. "The Crawford Files: OpenURL Meets Open Access." American Libraries 35 (February 2004) (Same instructions, but current year.)
RLG Focus 56 (June 2002). Includes several case studies of OpenURL implementation.
It's also worth looking at some of the FAQs and tutorials or white papers offered by OpenURL resolver vendors and users. OpenURL resolver (or link server) vendors and brandnames include SFX from Ex Libris, 1Cate from Openly Inc., LinkFinderPlus from Endeavor, Webbridge from Innovative Interfaces, and a number of others--as well as the "homebrew resolvers" from such innovators as OhioLINK. A sampling of the overviews and FAQs available from various sources:
SFX by Ex Libris: OpenURL Overview and FAQ
1cate ("one click access to everything") by Openly: OpenURL and LinkServer Basics and an FAQ linked from that page.
LinkFinderPlus by Endeavor: A 3-page FAQ, two-page tutorial (both PDF) and other documents on OpenURL.
Examples of institutional FAQs: Ohio State University for OLinks and Carnegie Mellon University Libraries for SFX. Many other university libraries also offer FAQs reflecting their own resolver implementations, and those FAQs frequently relate more directly to how OpenURL serves library users than some of the articles noted above and below.
OpenURL 1.0The articles above, and most of those listed under "More Articles," deal with the original OpenURL, first implemented as SFX. That straightforward, clearly-described format is now called OpenURL 0.1, to separate it from the new OpenURL 1.0, also known as Z39.88-2004, a proposed standard for which the balloting period is ending as this bibliography is being written
OpenURL 1.0, as set forth in the standards document, offers many more capabilities than OpenURL 0.1 but is also vastly more complex. If you're a standards person, you might want to read the actual standard (120+ pages, PDF); you'll find it at the NISO website (www.niso.org).
You'll find lots of background material and documents relating to the preparation of Z39.88-2004 at the website of committee AX, which developed the standard. That site inlcludes its own bibliography and links to PowerPoint presentations on OpenURL.
The 41-page KEV Implementation Guidelines, technically not part of the standard itself, offers detailed examples of how OpenURL 1.0 will work.
More ArticlesThe following items are extracted from Charles W. Bailey, Jr.'s Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography.
Except for items preceded with a *, I have not read these articles.
*Beit-Arie, Oren, Miriam Blake, Priscilla Caplan, Dale Flecker, Tim Ingoldsby, Laurence W. Lannom, William H. Mischo, Edward Pentz, Sally Rogers, and Herbert Van de Sompel. "Linking to the Appropriate Copy: Report of a DOI-Based Prototype." D-Lib Magazine 7 (September 2001).
*Caplan, Priscilla, and William Y. Arms. "Reference Linking for Journal Articles." 5 (July/August 1999). D-Lib Magazine
Cook, Anita, and Thomas Dowling. "Linking from Index to Primary Source: The OhioLINK Model." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 29, no. 5 (2003): 320-326.
Cummings, Joel, and Ryan Johnson. "The Use and Usability of SFX: Context-Sensitive Reference Linking." Library Hi Tech 21, no. 1 (2003): 70-84.
Gerrity, Bob, Theresa Lyman, and Ed Tallent. "Blurring Services and Resources: Boston College's Implementation of MetaLib and SFX." Reference Services Review 30, no. 3 (2002): 229-241
Hellman, Eric. "OpenURL: Making the Link to Libraries." Learned Publishing 16, no. 3 (2003): 177-181.
*Hendricks, Arthur. "The Development of the NISO Committee AX's OpenURL Standard." Information Technology and Libraries 22, no. 3 (2003): 129-133.
Lewis, Nicholas. "'I Want It All and I Want It Now!': Managing Expectations with MetaLib and SFX at the University of East Anglia." Serials 16, no. 1 (2003): 89-95.
Needleman, Mark H. "The OpenURL: An Emerging Standard for Linking." Serials Review 28, no. 1 (2002): 74-76.
*Powell, Andy, and Ann Apps. "Encoding OpenURLs in Dublin Core Metadata." 1). Ariadne, no. 27 (2001)
*Soderdahl, Paul A. "Implementing the SFX Link Server at the University of Iowa." Information Technology and Libraries 22, no. 3 (2003): 117-119.
*Van de Sompel, Herbert, and Oren Beit-Arie. "Generalizing the OpenURL Framework Beyond References to Scholarly Works: The Bison-Futé Model." D-Lib Magazine 7 (July/August 2001).
Walker, Jenny. "CrossRef and SFX: Complementary Linking Services for Libraries." New Library World 103, no. 3 (2002): 83-89.
________. "Open Linking for Libraries: The OpenURL Framework." New Library World 102, nos. 4/5 (2001): 127-133.
________. "What Is SFX?" Learned Publishing 14 (October 2001): 296-298.
Prepared March 30, 2004