> Dead ends from OpenURL enabled hyperlinks aren't a result of the standard
> though, but rather an aspect of both the problem they are trying to solve,
> and the conceptual way they try to do this.
>
> I'd content these dead ends are an implementation issue.


Absolutely. There is no inherent reason that an OpenURL has to be a plain
text link that must be manually clicked nor is there any requirement that
the resolver simply return an HTML page that may or may not contain plain
text links the user can click on.

An obvious thing for a resolver to be able to do is return results in JSON
so the OpenURL can be more than a static link. But since the standard
defines no such response, the site generating the OpenURL would have to know
something about the resolver.


> What I do see as a problem is that this market seems to have essentially
> stagnated, at least as far as I can see. I suspect the reasons for this are
> complex....


I suspect they are simple. The easy part of OpenURL addresses a compelling
use case, but there just isn't that much pressure to take things to the next
level. If people really got that upset about dead links -- and in many
systems this is impossible because you'll be offered ILL fulfillment if no
electronic copy is available -- there would be more incentive to handle
resolution before the user clicks on the link.

In short, you reach a point of diminishing returns with OpenURL very
quickly.

kyle