Informationen zum OpenURL Gateway

Usage

Institutions running their own link resolver may register here.

Portals / online databases simply use the base address   http://openurlgw.hbz-nrw.de/gw   and create OpenURLs according to the rules specified in Versions 1.0 (San Antonio Profile, Level 1) or 0.1 to link to the gateway.
Linking to the gateway does not need to take the capabilities of the individual resolvers into account, since the gateway will create the appropriate type of OpenURL from the incoming data on the fly.

Background

An OpenURL Resolver (also known as Linksolver or Link Resolver) is a web application which receives meta data (author, title, year of publication etc.) about a document (book, article, thesis, etc.) via a URL (link). It then uses this data to determine how the user who clicked on the link could get access to the full text of the document.
How the descriptive data about the document gete encoded in the URL is defined in the so called "OpenURL Standard" from which the name of the application is derived.

How the document might be accessible depends on the type of the document: ranging from direct online access via commercial databases to printed holdings to inter-library loan, libraries provide a wealth of possibilities to their patrons.
Because the services, holdings and licenses of each library are unique, OpenURL Resolvers are services configured for the individual local situation.

Portals or literature databases therefore need to send the users to the appropriate resolver - the one run by the home institution of the respective user.
The purpose of this OpenURL Gateway is to eliminate the need for every instituion or library to register their resolver with every possible portal or online database and to eliminate the need for every portal to maintain lists of institutions and their resolvers. Instead, a library registers its resolver once with this gateway and the portal simply always links to this gateway - which significantly reduces the effort on all sides.
Users then follow the links from the portal to the gateway, select their home institution and are the redirected to the appropriate local link resolver.

Background

Development of the OpenURL Gateway was partly funded by the vascoda project. Resources for ongoing operation are provided by the hbz as a free infrastructure service for science and research. Usage of the gateway is free of charge for all interested institutions.