The only difference between COinS and a full OpenURL is the addition of a link resolver address. Most databases that provide OpenURL links directly (rather than simply COinS) use some profile information - usually set by the subscribing library, although some based on information supplied by an individual user. If set by the library this is then linked to specific users by IP or by login.

There are a couple(?) of generic base URLs you can use which will try to redirect to an appropriate link resolver based on IP range of the requester, with fallback options if it can't find an appropriate resolver (I think this is how the WorldCat resolver works? The 'OpenURL Router' in the UK definitely works like this)

The LibX toolbar allows users to set their link resolver address, and then translates COinS into OpenURLs when you view a page - all user driven, no need for the data publisher to do anything beyond COinS

There is also the 'cookie pusher' solution which ArXiv uses - where the user can set a cookie containing the base URL, and this is picked up and used by ArXiV (http://arxiv.org/help/openurl)

Owen

PS it occurs to me that the other part of the question is 'what metadata should be included in the OpenURL to give it the best chance of working with a link resolver'?

Owen Stephens
Owen Stephens Consulting
Web: http://www.ostephens.com
Email: [log in to unmask]
Telephone: 0121 288 6936

On 20 Nov 2012, at 19:39, David Lawrence <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have some experience with the library side of link resolver code.
> However, we want to implement OpenURL hooks on our open access literature
> database and I can not find where to begin.
> 
> SafetyLit is a free service of San Diego State University in cooperation
> with the World Health Organization. We already provide embedded metadata in
> both COinS and unAPI formats to allow its capture by Mendeley, Papers,
> Zotero, etc. Over the past few months, I have emailed or talked with many
> people and read everything I can get my hands on about this but I'm clearly
> not finding the right people or information sources.
> 
> Please help me to find references to examples of the code that is required
> on the literature database server that will enable library link resolvers
> to recognize the SafetyLit.org metadata and allow appropriate linking to
> full text.
> 
> SafetyLit.org receives more than 65,000 unique (non-robot) visitors and the
> database responds to almost 500,000 search queries every week. The most
> frequently requested improvement is to add link resolver capacity.
> 
> I hope that code4lib users will be able to help.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> David
> 
> David W. Lawrence, PhD, MPH, Director
> Center for Injury Prevention Policy and Practice
> San Diego State University, School of Public Health
> 6475 Alvarado Road, Suite 105
> San Diego, CA  92120  [log in to unmask]
> V 619 594 1994   F 619 594 1995  Skype: DWL-SDCAwww.CIPPP.org  --
> www.SafetyLit.org