A Global OpenURL Resolver Registry

OCLC Online Computer Library Center

A Global OpenURL Resolver Registry

Phil Norman OCLC

Dlsr4lib Workshop

March 23rd, 2006

Arlington VA


Current landscape – closed Resolver Registries


Landscape with Global OpenURL Resolver Registry



Benefits of an OCLC Global OpenURL Resolver Registry

Libraries: Reduced Administration – libraries register resolvers in one place for multiple

discovery sources. Wider access to libraries’ licensed e-content and other library materials.

Partners: Eliminates need to create and maintain closed resolver registries. Can start

with base of many resolvers. Provides detailed information about resolver capabilities which can be used to

provide more appropriate links. Users:

Access to e-content and other library materials at point of need. Improved linking experience based on Partners’ use of detailed resolver

information. Fewer dead links.


OCLC OpenURL Resolver Registryhttp://www.oclc.org/productworks/urlresolver.htm

Starts with base of 900+ unique Resolvers from multiple vendors registered in the OCLC FirstSearch service.

Publicly available input form to registry at http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/ (requires OCLC LDAP user registration).

Gateway provides redirect and lookup capabilities to registered resolvers based on IP address recognition at http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/gateway/

XML schema provided to specify format of registry entries. http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/resolver/Resolver.xsd

Gateway links are available from OCLC Open WorldCat.


Advanced settings for OpenURL 0.1


Advanced settings for Z39.88 (OpenURL 1.0)


OpenURL Resolver Gateway Service


Gateway: Multiple Resolvers per IP address.

http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/gateway/?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF8&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1002/iir.126


Gateway – one resolver associated with IP address

http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/gateway/?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1002/iir.126


Gateway – no resolvers in registry matching IP and OpenURL contains ISSN, journal title, or ISBN.

http://openwcdev2.dev.oclc.org:4080/registry/gateway/?url_ver=Z39.882004&rfr_id=info:sid/oclc.org:registry&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=journal&rft.issn=09574484&sid=oclc.org:registry&title=nanotechnology&remoteAddr=128.153.100.11


Gateway Lookup

http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/lookup?IP=132.174.21.99

returns an XML instance which complies to the XML schema

http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/resolver/Resolver.xsd.


Roadmap at a glance

Activities during Alpha Phase:

Registry harvested and made searchable by Yale Medical Informatics (Dan Chudnov).

Links to gateway added in exported MARC records in OCLC E-Serials Pilot project.

Lookup feature used by OCLC Openly OpenURL Referrer Mozilla Firefox extension.

Product manager, Scott Shultz hired.

Will be announced very soon as a production service.

Planning Pilot release including registered partners

Partners must register with OCLC to use some services.

Varying levels of access depending on partner’s needs. Gateway redirection, gateway lookup, export of registry, statistics.

Planning to import resolvers from vendors to grow registry.

Business model for pilot and beyond

Basic level of free access unless partner is charging for service.

Any fees incurred are based on cost recovery model.

No cost for contributing. Fees may be waived for partners that significantly contribute to the registry.


XML Schema

Provides a means to define the structure and semantics of the content of the OpenURL Resolver Registry.

Provides a way to validate Resolver registry XML files for importing into the registry and exporting out of the registry.

Allows for new namespaces, metadata formats, transports, encodings, and community profiles. Checks on the format of the namespace rather than the existence of the identifier. For example if a <Z39.88-2004_MetadataFormat> matches the pattern “info:ofi/fmt:.*” it is considered a valid metadata format.

When validating XML files OCLC will make assumptions as to what namespaces and metadata formats are supported when the sap1-2004 and sap2-2004 community profiles are specified.


Attributes of Registries

What is a registry?

A registry is a collection of registry objects compiled to support the business of a given community.[1] A registry includes the services on top of the data – not just the data. OCLC has always been in the registries business - WorldCat itself is an example of a registry about information objects. Attributes that make a registry useful are:

Comprehensiveness – A registry must include enough information to be actionable. For example, an institutional registry must include information about non-member libraries to make it applicable outside of OCLC.

Data Accuracy – The data in a registry must be accurate to be valuable. This means both the initial data entry, as well as maintenance over time.

Openly Accessible – A registry must be exposed to multiple uses in order for its full value to be leveraged.

Standards-based – Whenever possible a registry should be standards-based, both in its access as well as the data it contains.

Unambiguous Identifiers – A registry by itself has value, but a registry is more valuable if the items it contains can be easily intersected across other registries through standard unambiguous identifiers.

[1] Definition from ISO 2146 - Information and documentation - Registry Services for Libraries and Related Organizations


Types of Registries

People – Person identifiers, their affiliations, roles, transactions. This is a subset of the “Parties” category in ISO 2146.

Institutions – Institutional identifiers, groups, their relationships with each other, and mapping to other sources of institutional metadata. This is a subset of the “Parties” category in ISO 2146.

Services – Metadata about services: OpenURL, OPACs, Z39.50 targets, etc. This is equivalent to the “Services” category in ISO 2146.

Information Objects – Metadata about individual information objects, i.e. WorldCat. This is a subset of the “Collections” category in ISO 2146.

Collections – Groups of individual information objects, including metadata about the collection itself. This is a subset of the “Collections” category in ISO 2146.

Rights/Licenses – Registries of things that control access to content. This is an intersection of the “Parties” and “Collections” categories in ISO 2146.

Policies – Things that describe specific policies for library services, like ILL Policies. This is an intersection of the “Parties” and “Services” categories in ISO 2146.

Activities – Things occurring over time, transactions. This is equivalent to the “Activities” category in ISO 2146.


Registry ArchitectureWeb 2.0 concepts – Native to a Web of DataTom Coates Yahoo

Look to add value to the Aggregate Web of data

Build for normal users, developers and machines

Start designing with data, not with pages

Identify your first order objects and make them addressable

Use readable, reliable and hackable URLs

Correlate with external identifier schemes

Build list views and batch manipulation interfaces

Create parallel data services using standards

Make your data as discoverable as possible


Dan Chudnov’s Yale Center for Medical Informatics site allows searching the resolver registry. http://curtis.med.yale.edu/dchud/resolvable/more.cgi


MARC Record export for e-serialspiloting with 3 librariesOpenURL link to registry gateway in 856 field


MARC Record export for e-serialspiloting with 3 librariesOpenURL link to registry gateway in 856 field

Phil Norman


Questions?

We want to hear from you. Contact [email protected] at OCLC with your questions and suggestions or if you are interested in being an OpenURL Resolver Registry Partner.

Learn more at our Product works site:http://www.oclc.org/productworks/urlresolver.htm

A Global OpenURL Resolver Registry

Documents

Transcript of A Global OpenURL Resolver Registry