What’s In a Name: Definitions

So as I was taking notes over the past month on our readings, I couldn’t help but jot down every definition provided, as my what I consider to be still “rookie status” to this stuff always appreciates hearing things explained a different way to enforce understanding. Here is a list of some definitions I’ve compiled, to which I could probably add in the future:

OpenURL:

• open source reference linking using link resolver, source AND target, simplicity and transparency, points to other related resources (i.e. availability in print or other ILL pages) (Boston & Gedeon, 2008)
• “mechanism for transporting metadata and identifiers describing a publication, for the purpose of context-sensitive linking.” (Brand, 2003)
• framework has both local control AND standardized transport of metadata

Link Resolver:

• “…system for linking within an institutional context that can interpret incoming OpenURLs, take the local holdings and access privileges of that institution into account, and display links to appropriate resources.” (Brand, 2003)
• OpenURL is sent to local link resolver, metadata in the OpenURL is compared with localized knowledgebase, then links if there’s a match. OpenURL framework+CrossRef+DOI=link resolvers are possible! (Weddle, 2008)

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

• Managed by the CrossRef system which uses DOIs to reliably locate individual digital items, can be considered problematic because it only takes users to publisher-supplied full text, not to the “appropriate copy” (Boston & Gedeon, 2008)
• “DOIs link to the full text of information objects housed at publishers’ Web sites. If full text is available elsewhere—for example, in an aggregator or in an Open Access (OA) source—then a link resolver becomes necessary, which, depending on the quality of the metadata and the knowledgebase, can present any number of full-text options, not just the publisher’s full text,” a persistent, unique identifier, can be associated with multiple instances of an article (Weddle, 2008)
• DOI: NISO standard syntax; prefix (assigned to content owner by DOI registration agency, all begin with 10 to distinguish DOI from other types of Handle Systems)+suffix(flexible syntax, composed by publisher according to internal content management needs, but must be unique within prefix); alphanumeric name for a digital content entity (i.e. book, journal article, etc.), allows content to be moved but kept updated so no broken links. DOI stays the same, while URL (which DOI is linked to) can change as needed (Brand, 2003)

CrossRef:

• service of the Publishers International Linking Association, largest DOI Registration Agency, works as “a digital switchboard connecting DOIs with corresponding URLs” (Weddle, 2008)
• “nonprofit membership association, founded and directed by publishers. Its mission is to improve access to published scholarship through collaborative technologies…it operates a cross-publisher citation linking system, and it is an official digital object identifier (DOI) registration agency” (Brand, 2003)

Reference Linking:

• aka citation linking, a user’s ability to move from an information object to another, can be external or internal (Grogg, 2006)

Context-sensitive Linking:

• “…takes the user’s context, usually meaning his or her affiliations but possibly also the user’s intent for desired information objects, into account; therefore, ideally, context-sensitive linking only offers links to content the user should be able to access,” appropriate copy (Weddle, 2008)
• “In short, a workable linking framework should take a user’s context into consideration.” (Weddle, 2008)

Faceted Browsing:

• Drilling down a search, or limited different facets until you get to your desired end result, takes guessing out of the process (Walker, 2010)

And to wrap the list up, here’s a nice summary from Brand (2003) of exactly how it all fits together:

• “The DOI and the OpenURL work together in several ways. First, the DOI directory itself, where link resolution occurs in the CrossRef platform, is OpenURL enabled. This means that it can recognize a user with access to a local resolver. When such a user clicks on a DOI, the CrossRef system redirects that DOI back to the user’s local resolver, and it allows the DOI to be used as a key to pull metadata out of the CrossRef database, metadata that is needed to create the OpenURL targeting the local resolver. As a result, the institutional user clicking on a DOI is directed to appropriate resources.”