Why Should Publishers Implement the OpenURL Framework

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Why Should Publishers Implement the OpenURL
Framework?
Andrew K. Pace Head, Systems NCSU Libraries and
rew_pace_at_ncsu.edu
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Why Should Publishers Implement the OpenURL
Framework?
Or,
How about because. Is because good enough for
you?

• How I learned to stop worrying, and love
  standards.

Andrew K. Pace Head, Systems NCSU Libraries and
rew_pace_at_ncsu.edu
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What, me worry?
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Acknowledgments

• Herbert Van de Sompel and Oren Beit-Arie
• Pat Harris and October Ivins, NISO
• Craig Van Dycken, John Wiley Sons
• Terry Hulbert, Institute of Physics Publishing
• Jenny Walker, Ex Libris
• Eric Van de Velde, Calif. Inst. Of Technology
• CrossRef, Openly Informatics, Ex Libris and
  everyone else who has written or spoken about
  OpenURL

How come stealing from one book is
plagiarism, and stealing from many
is research? - Alfred E. Newman
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OpenURL

• Why a standard?
• Why the OpenURL standard?
• Why do libraries care so much?
• Why should publishers care as much as libraries
  do?
  
• How easily can it be done?

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Why a standard?

• Because doing something uniformly across your own
  platform is NOT a standard,
  
• and because wide adoption of a single solution is
  NOT a standard,
  
• and just because yours is better than anyone
  elses does not mean that it is any good.

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Its gotta be a standard

• THE PLAYERS
• Libraries
• Library system vendors
• Middleware vendors
• Scholarly publishers
• Commercial publishers
• Journal aggregators
• AI services
• Standards bodies

Linking systems are indeed technically complex,
but above all they are organizationally
complex. Priscilla Caplan, FCLA A Lesson in Li
nking, Library Journal netConnect, Fall 2001
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Why the OpenURL standard?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all full-text links are not created equal.
We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall
all hang separately.
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Why CrossRef / DOI, too?
The wonderful thing about standards is there are
so many to choose from.
appropriate copy best copy
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Why do libraries care so much?

• I need 5 articles
• Can I get this citation online somewhere?
• These journals are most important to my subject
  area
  
• What do you mean books and articles arent both
  in there?

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NCSU Libraries 2003

• 255 Online Databases from 70 providers
• Over 5000 full electronic journals
• 30,700 activated titles in our SFX Knowledge
  Base
  
• 12,735 distinct ISSNs
• Before SFX Implementation, EJournal Finder was
  searched 350,000 times in one year 40 more than
  the year before
  
• 9M annual collections budget
• 6M for serials
• 3.9M for print serials

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Why should publishers care as much as libraries
do?

• What goes around, comes around

• The Value Proposition if libraries want it, our
  providers should offer it

• MetaSearch needs standard data too

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Reciprocity Works

• The Web is a reciprocal environment
• If libraries and users want it, and OpenURL
  increases incoming traffic, its a win for
  everyone
  
• Publishers must be sources and targets

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Libraries Comparison Shop

• Shrinking budgets
• Increasing sophistication
• System development must match development needs
• ERM System evaluation

OpenURL Compliant?
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Killing Two Birds with One Stone

• Minimal metasearch records
• Cross-fertilization
• Developmental dove-tailing

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How easily can it be done?

• Better technical infrastructure
• Happier libraries and satisfied users
• More use of content through exposure of target
  information in the OpenURL framework
  

• The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive
  Services, Part 1 ContextObject and Transport
  Mechanisms, which defines the general framework
  to bundle specific packages of contextual
  metadata and transport them over a network. It
  introduces the Registry to hold core properties
  of concrete instantiations of the general
  framework.

• The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive
  Services, Part 2 Initial Registry Content.
  which details core properties that can be used in
  actual instantiations of the general framework.
  This Part can be used by Communities to implement
  an instantiation of the OpenURL Framework. Other
  Communities may use this Part as a guideline for
  the definition and implementation of other
  instantiations.

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Its Library Science, not Rocket Science

• When, not if
• How, not why
• How many, not who

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Thank you.
Andrew K. Pace North Carolina State University Li
braries
andrew_pace_at_ncsu.edu