Rethinking Linking: Breathing New Life into OpenURL

Rethinking Linking: Breathing New Life into OpenURL In this issue of Library Technology Reports, authors Cindi Trainor and Jason Price revisit OpenURL and library linking. The OpenURL framework for context-sensitive linking has been in use for a decade, during which library collections and users' behaviors have undergone radical change. This report examines how libraries can make use of web usability principles and data analysis to improve their local resolver installations and looks to the wider web for what the future of this integral library technology might hold. Chapter One Introduction Scope of this report The January/February 2006 issue of Library Technology Reports introduced the OpenURL standard, its history and its purpose for addressing the “complexity inherent in having multiple online copies” of an article or other item, often in multiple sources (Caplan 2001). An OpenURL link resolver is a software product that takes advantage of this standard to link a citation in one product to that item’s full text, even if that full text exists within a different product. This report builds on its predecessor by outlining issues common to OpenURL resolver products and suggests ways that libraries can address them. This report is not an introduction to link resolver software and assumes basic knowledge about library databases and the online research process. It's important to note that the authors' perspective is that of librarians passionate about improving the user experience by improving the tools that our libraries purchase, license or build, not that of experts on link resolver software or on the OpenURL standard. The principles guiding this report include: ● the resolver’s main purpose to “shorten the path” between citation and item (Dempsey 2010); ● the relationship between the library and the open web, especially Google, must be complementary, not competitive; ● OpenURL and related or successive linking initiatives must be widely adapted inside and outside libraries to facilitate the best user access to scholarly content; ● OpenURL and other linking technologies must be efficient, effective and transparent to the user. This report provides practicing librarians real-world examples and strategies for improving resolver usability and functionality in their own institutions. To prepare this report, the authors tested and evaluated link resolver installations at their own libraries. The Claremont Colleges Library subscribes to Serials Solutions’ 360 Link, and EKU is a long-time SFX customer, an ExLibris product.