OpenURL
OpenURL is a standard for specifying metadata in a URL in order to link to electronic documents regardless of the current storage location .
OpenURL was developed by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) as the ANSI / NISO Z39.88 standard. On June 22, 2006, the maintenance and development of the standard was transferred to the OCLC .
motivation
The idea of OpenURL is influenced by Ted Nelson's approach in the Xanadu project , one of the first hypertext systems . In this system, a distinction is made between the Resource Identifier ( URI ) and the Resource Locator ( URL ). A resource (such as a document) can be uniquely identified using the resource identifier. If the resource is requested (the document is loaded), it is obtained from the Resource Locator. Here the resource identifier is sent to a resolution service, which uses the resource identifier to determine the "best possible" resource locator.
In the design of the World Wide Web , because of its technical complexity, no distinction is made between URIs and URLs. This can cause problems like broken links :
- Searching for relevant information on a specific subject area is difficult with conventional search engines .
- URLs are changed, so it has no information about it is under what URL to find the document now if there is no link / not at the old place forwarding ( redirect exists) to the new URL.
- Conventional search engines do not search within licensed documents, as certain access rights are required for this . But if you actually have such access rights, you cannot find the information within the licensed documents because you have to use a search engine.
Dissolution mechanism
In the case of a query via OpenURL, not only the entered search text but also information about the user are sent to the link resolver for the search result . He can check the access rights and manage the access accordingly. If the user has the appropriate rights, the server sends back a URL with the current location.
literature
- Panagiotis Kitmeridis: Use of OpenURL in the field of scientific research . Diploma thesis at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, April 13, 2005 online , ISBN 3-86550-315-2
- Theodor Holm Nelson: Xanalogical Structure, Needed Now More than Ever: Parallel Documents, Deep Links to Content, Deep Versioning and Deep Re-Use , May 23, 2000. online