OpenURL ResolverThe Perfect Librarian!

LACASIS OpenURL WorkshopJohn McDonald

California Institute of TechnologyApril 2, 2004

A persistent user looks for information…

Some typical information behaviors…

Starting: activities associated with the initiation of information seekingChaining: following chains of citations and hyperlinksBrowsing: scanning for information in areas of interest or near relevant itemsDifferentiating: using differences between resources to filter informationMonitoring: keeping up to date with information in the areaAccessing: physical & intellectual act of locating & acquiring informationExtracting: identifying and selecting information systematically from a sourceVerifying: using other resources to establish the authenticity of informationNetworking: communicating and interacting with others to build information archives, gather information, and share informationManaging: filing, organizing, and storing information for later use or re-useEnding: making sure nothing was missed earlier, or finalizing the project

Ellis (1993), Ellis & Haugan (1997) & Meho & Tibbo (2003)

OpenURL ResolversAccentuate the information seeking strengths of academic researchersUnmediated recommender system that is transparent to the userHelps the user with a variety of information actions: browsing, chaining, differentiating, extracting, managing, and accessing.Helps the library staff with complementary information actions, such as verifying, recommending, organizing, and informing.

Let’s look at an example…

You find your record…

Accessing

Managing & Ending

Chaining & Differentiating

Accessing & Browsing

Options for staff…

Link to Books in Print or other vendor databasesLink from ILL/Document Delivery forms to verify citations and locate online & print holdingsCustomized targets to inform users about particular journals, publishers, or policiesLocate or verify citations at service desksConsolidate cataloging & management of hyperlinksProvide Usage Information

What are we not yet doing?Monitoring

Many information providers have e-alerts, repeat saved searches, etc.

Networking Users may want to email a citation to a colleague or another student.

Extracting Passing the bibliographic information to another database to search.

Analyzing Including user behavior information in the OpenURL to study how our patrons interact with our collections.

But otherwise, it’s the Perfect Librarian!

Questions?

LACASIS OpenURL WorkshopJohn McDonald

California Institute of Technology

April 2, 2004