OpenURL

OpenURL is a standard for specifying metadata in a URL, regardless of the current location to link to electronic documents.

OpenURL was developed by the National Information Standards Organization ( NISO ) as the standard ANSI / NISO Z39.88. On 22 June 2006 maintenance and development of standards to the OCLC was transferred.

Motivation

The idea of OpenURL is influenced by Ted Nelson's Xanadu project approach, one of the first hypertext systems. In this system between the Resource Identifier (URI ) and the Resource Locator (URL) is discriminated. A resource (such as a document) can be clearly identified by the resource identifier. If the resource is requested ( the document is loaded ), so this is based on the Resource Locator. Here, the resource identifier is sent to a resolution service, which is determined from the resource identifier of the "best " Resource Locator.

In the design of the World Wide Web is omitted, the distinction between URIs and URLs because of their technical complexity. As a result, problems such as broken links occur:

• The search for relevant information on a specific topic proves with conventional search engines as difficult.
• Become URLs changed, then one has no information about the conditions under which the document URL is now to find if at the old place no link / no forwarding ( redirect ) exists to the new URL.
• Conventional search engines are looking not licensed within documents because this will require specific access rights. But if one actually has such a privilege, you can not find the information within the licensed documents because you have to use a search engine.

Resolution mechanism

When inquiring about OpenURL not only the entered search text, but also information about the user is sent to the resolver for the search result. This can check the access rights and manage access accordingly. Does the user have the appropriate permissions, the server sends back a URL with the current location.