OpenURL

OpenURL is a standardized format for encoding a description of a resource within a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), intended to help Internet users to find a copy of the resource that they are allowed to access. Although OpenURL could be used with any kind of resource on the Internet, it is usually used by libraries to help connect patrons with such content as articles, books, or patents held in their collections or available by subscription. The National Information Standards Organization has developed standards for OpenURL and its data container (the ContextObject) as American National Standards Institute standard ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004.

The OpenURL standard is designed to enable linking from information resources such as abstracting and indexing databases (sources) to library services (targets), such as academic journals, whether online or in printed or other formats. The linking is mediated by "link resolvers", or "link-servers", which parse the elements of an OpenURL and provide links to appropriate targets available through a library by the use of an OpenURL knowledge base.

The source that generates an OpenURL is typically a bibliographic citation or bibliographic record in a database that indexes the information resources often found in libraries. Examples of such databases include Ovid, Web of Science, SciFinder, Modern Languages Association Bibliography and Google Scholar.

A target is a resource or service that helps satisfy a user's information needs. Examples of targets include full-text repositories, online journals, online library catalogs and other Web resources and services.

OpenURL was created by Herbert Van de Sompel, a librarian at the University of Ghent, in the late 1990s. His link-server software, SFX, was purchased by the library automation company Ex Libris Group which popularized OpenURL in the information industry.

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