Link Resolvers
The following details of our implementation of ArticleLinker, a third party solution maintained by Serials Solutions, are intended to provide an overview of the technology powering link resolvers in general and ArticleLinker in particular for staff to better understand and troubleshoot ArticleLinker.
What is an OpenURL?
What is a link resolver?
What does an OpenURL look like?
What does ArticleLinker link to at USU?
How do I recognize an OpenURL in a bibliographic database?
Is there a guide for using Article Linker?
Why do catalog searches sometimes fail?
Why does ArticleLinker not take me to the article but to the journal? I mean, it is called ArticleLinker....
What else can cause ArticleLinker to fail?
Where can I get more information on OpenURLs and link resolvers?
What is an OpenURL?
OpenURL is a standard that governs the encoding of metadata (generally from a bibliographic citation) as a URL (see the Wikipedia definition for more details). The resulting URL can then interact with specific online services (i.e. library catalogs, ILL services, fulltext databases) to provide either the full text of or additional information about the cited item.
What is a Link Resolver?
A link resolver is a service that produces menus in response to OpenURL queries. In short, it provides links between source (origination) and target (destination) databases. The initial OpenURL link is generated by a target database but the menus are determined by the resolver, which incorporates a knowledgebase of customized services. Therefore, the menu suggests only databases and catalogs available to a specific population of users.
At USU, we use the Serials Solutions product, ArticleLinker, to generate these links. Source databases generate an OpenURL and display the ArticleLinker icon. Clicking the icon causes the URL to query our resolver; the resolver then produces a service menu (customized for USU faculty, students, and staff) with options for obtaining more information (generally the full text of bibliographic citations).
Abstracting and indexing databases are good examples of source databases. Target databases are a bit more complex, but generally, include fulltext databases, e-journal packages, aggregators, library catalogs, etc. It is also possible to set a link resolver to query a search engine, populate an interlibrary loan request form, query a citation search database, and many other innovative services. The only restriction is that both the source and the target databases must be "OpenURL compliant."
What does an OpenURL look like?
An OpenURL appears below. In the first segment (red) you can see the server address of our link resolver where the URL will obtain information pertinent to USU users (e.g. what databases and services might be able to provide information about this citation) and in the second segment (blue) you can see the encoded information about the citation (e.g. that Academic Search Premier generated the citation, that this is a journal article; that the journal title is New Literary History, etc.).
http://xz6kg9rb2j.search.serialssolutions.com/%20?sid=EBSCO:Academic%20Search%20Premier&genre=article&title= New%20Literary%20History&atitle=Femme%20Fatale%97Negotiations%20of%20Tragic%20Desire%2E&author= Bronfen%2C%20Elisabeth&authors=Bronfen%2C%20Elisabeth&date=20040101&volume=35&issue=1&spage=103&issn=00286087
What does ArticleLinker link to at USU?
In addition to our online catalog, anything that is included in our e-journals list is an ArticleLinker target.
How do I recognize an OpenURL in a bibliographic database?
Look for the ArticleLinker icon (above) or a link that says "Link to full text through ArticleLinker."
Is there a guide for using ArticleLinker? (Thanks Britt!)
We have a great guide that you can review or feel free to contact Library Help.
Why do catalog searches sometimes fail?
There are many reasons why a catalog search might fail. The most frequent problem occurs when the citation refers to a book or a book chapter. Often there are multiple editions of books and if you search by ISBN, the edition that we own might be different from the one referenced in the bibliographic citation. Therefore, it is always best to try both the ISBN and the title search. Problems also occur when metadata has been incorrectly encoded and the online catalog is told to search by the wrong type of title (i.e. the metadata reflects "article title" in the "journal title" field). It is always good to double-check a failed ArticleLinker search in the catalog.
Why does ArticleLinker not take me to the article but to the journal? I mean, it is called ArticleLinker....
Some full text providers are not set-up to link all the way to the article level. In such cases, ArticleLinker takes you to the journal level and you must navigate down. Other providers give you the option of linking to both the journal level and the article level.
What else can cause ArticleLinker to fail?
Lots of things can cause a problem with ArticleLinker including typographical errors in the metadata or citation, incorrectly reported holdings in the knowledgebase, and incorrectly formatted metadata. The good news is that as the standard has matured, problems have become less frequent; however, any OpenURL resolver will still occasionally, misfire. ArticleLinker now provides a form to refine the citation search when it returns no results. It is best to check the data that has populated this form to see if the search has been correctly executed. If you discover an error, please report it to Jennifer Duncan.
Where can I get more information on OpenURLs and Link Resolvers?
NISO Committee for the OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services
Information on the OpenURL Standard from CalTech--including an excellent bibliography
More information on ArticleLinker
Date last updated: 07/21/06