Open Url Resolver Scoping Study
The overall aim of the project is to investigate how comprehensive deployment of OpenURL resolvers can assist the productivity of staff and students in all UK higher and further education in using journal content and the like within the JISC IE.
The objectives for the project are:
Part 1: Scoping review
• to re-state and review the ‘appropriate copy problem’ in the light of developments in the past five years, both technical and business, as seen from the point of view of the stakeholders (see below) and the JISC Information Environment; to include OA repositories as well as commercial sources of supply of full text of articles
• to ascertain the current extent of deployment of OpenURL resolvers, their financial cost, the issues faced by libraries in set-up and maintenance, and the technical issues involved in incorporating such resolvers into institutional systems
• to compare and contrast the use of a ‘knowledgebase’ with the ‘rights evaluation scheme’ and with a ‘licence registry’
• to assess the ‘gap’ in take-up of such resolvers and the loss in productivity for staff, students and libraries, and the potential saving to institutions with the provision of a low-cost OpenURL resolver.
Part 2: Definition of architecture(s) and business model(s)
• to specify possible system architecture(s) and business model(s) for low cost components to address the ‘appropriate copy problem’, including both OpenURL resolvers and use of the OpenURL Router
• To consider issues of sustainability, both the cost and the revenue models: relation to OpenURL Router, as ‘infrastructure’; prospect of income from institutions etc
• to provide a costed proposal to be submitted to JIE for implementation and support of a shared service.