Re: Link resolvers as loosely coupled systems for holdings?

From: Eric Hellman <eric_at_nyob>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:42:12 -0400
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
On Sep 10, 2007, at 12:36 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:

> Stephens, Owen wrote:
>
>> I think my point is that in the form of the current link resolvers
>> I can
>> see how a loosely coupled holdings system would work, but for some
>> reason we have generally stopped at the e-journal information
>
> I think this has to do with the underlying databases and how they are
> developed. The database has ISSNs for licensed journals and an
> algorithm
> for how to create a link to the article from the information passed by
> the OpenURL. For books you would need an entry per book (rather
> than an
> entry per journal), and the folks I've talked to don't think that the
> underlying database can scale.

I think you've been talking to the wrong folks, Karen!

Rather, the issue is really- why have the ILS vendors not turned
their OPAC systems into OpenURL resolving systems? I cannot think of
any good reason. I assumed that this would be an obvious direction
for the industry to go, but I think my mistake was to assume that the
industry would "go" anywhere.

Eric
Received on Tue Sep 11 2007 - 07:45:24 EDT