Following up on John's mention of Balsa:

      EDINA provides GetCopy, http://edina.ac.uk/getcopy/, as an open
access
openurl resolver. GetCopy is a slightly revised version of
Balsa
(Balsa is actually still available, but is likely to be be
withdrawn at
some point).

GetCopy supports OpenURL 0.1 and 1.0 (formally, the OpenURL San
Antonio
Profile levels 0 and 1). The "base URL" is
http://edina.ac.uk/getcopy/resolve. For example:


http://edina.ac.uk/getcopy/resolve?genre=article;issn=0001-5903;volume=37;
issue=3;spage=193;date=2000

If GetCopy looks useful to you, but you would prefer to select
your own
target databases rather than use the default set, we could create
a
profile for you.

There is also a simple machine-to-machine interface
that resolves an OpenURL request but returns XML rather than a web
page.
For example:

http://edina.ac.uk/getcopy/resolve/xml/?genre=article;issn=0001-5903;volum
e=37;issue=3;spage=193;date=2000

If you are interested in providing openurl support for users from
different UK HE/FE institutions, can I recommend you take a look
at the
OpenURL Router? This is fully explained at
http://openurl.ac.uk/doc/,
but the short explanation is this: you can provide links to
openurl
resolvers set up by UK institutions without having to figure out
for yourself where a user is from, or whether their institution
has
a resolver. You can send a machine-to-machine query to get this
information, or just construct an OpenURL link addressed to
openurl.ac.uk
and it all happens by magic.

For example if you click on the following link, and if you
institution
has a resolver (and registered it with the Router), it should
resolver
using your local resolver. Note the link contains no information
about
institutions or resolvers.


http://openurl.ac.uk/?auinit=KL&aulast=Cheney&date=2003&epage=896&issn=104
5-2249&issue=6&sid=test%3Aignore&spage=892&title=BEHAVIORAL%20ECOLOGY&volu
me=14

It will either have figured this out from your IP address or have
used
the Athens single sign on.

The OpenURL Router is another EDINA project. It originated in
ZBLSA,
as we realised that service providers had a whole new problem now
that
openurl resolvers were getting popular: how on earth does a
service
provider know which resolver to link to for any given user? This
is
generally done by getting librarians to set up an institutional
profile
at the service (including details of the resolver); this is a lot
of work
as it has to be repeated for every service, and it is also
dependent on
a service using some sort of login (so that users can be matched
to the
appropriate profile), making it useless for open access services.

Christine

EDINA, Main Library,
University of Ediburgh, EH8 9LJ

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Repositories discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J.W.T.Smith
> Sent: 23 November 2006 17:02
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: OpenURL Resolvers
>
> Howard,
>
> Would Balsa, funded by JISC, do what you want?
>
>
> http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_shared_ser
> vices/project_balsa.aspx
>
> Regards,
>
> John Smith,
> University of Kent.
>
>
> On Thu, 23 Nov 2006, Howard Noble wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am working on the ASK project as part of the repositories
> programme. We're gluing together lots of open source software
> together to make a repository system.
> >
> > Can anyone suggest a resolver instance we can point to our
> metadata to (i.e. a resolver that is configured to point to
> lots of targets (in SFX speak)). Basically has anyone got a
> BaseURL we can use for testing against?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Howard Noble
> > University of Oxford, 13 Banbury Rd, Oxford. OX2 6NN. England
> > Tel. +44 (0)1865 273211
> > email: [log in to unmask]
>