Holdings Information in Electronic Content Access:
NISO’s IOTA Working GroupJanuary 8, 2011
Oliver Pesch, EBSCO Information Services
Overview
• Background on iota – why focus on OpenURL quality
• Current focus – what is the problem space being tackled by the working group
• Status
• Looking forward
• Getting involved
Background
• Item-level linking became part of our vocabulary a decade ago as librarians worked to link users from the point of discovery to the content that was discovered.
• OpenURL and link resolvers provide a scalable solution to item level linking.
• Things don’t always work as well as they should……this is the subject of a 2008 study led by Adam
Chandler investigating issues with his institution’s link resolver.
*Chandler, Adam. 2009. Results of L’Année philologique online OpenURL Quality Investigation: Mellon Planning Grant Final Report.http://metadata.library.cornell.edu/oq/files/200902%20lannee-mellonreport-openurlquality-final.pdf.
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
Item Level Linking: Before OpenURL
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
Item Level Linking: With OpenURL
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
Item Level Linking: With OpenURL
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
OpenURL TargetLinks
Knowledge base
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
Item Level Linking: With OpenURL
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
OpenURL TargetLinks
Knowledge base
Citation
Full text
1 Citation details in OpenURL
Citation details matched againstcollection to find appropriate link
2
Target link created often using citation data
3
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
Item Level Linking: With OpenURL
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
OpenURL TargetLinks
Knowledge base
Citation
Full text
1 Citation details in OpenURL
Citation details matched againstcollection to find appropriate link
2
Target link created often using citation data
3
Citation:A, Bernand, et al. "A versatile nanotechnology to connect individual nano-objects for the fabrication of hybrid single-electron devices." Nanotechnology 21, no. 44 (November 5, 2010): pg. 201. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2010).
Citation:A, Bernand, et al. "A versatile nanotechnology to connect individual nano-objects for the fabrication of hybrid single-electron devices." Nanotechnology 21, no. 44 (November 5, 2010): pg. 201. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2010).
OpenURL:http://ps4ps6lm2r.search.serialssolutions.com/?issn=0957-4484&volume=21&issue=44&date=20101105&spage=201&title=Nanotechnology&atitle=A+versatile+nanotechnology+to+connect+ Individual+nano-objects+for+the+fabrication+of+ hybrid+single-electron+devices.&aulast=Bernand
OpenURL:http://ps4ps6lm2r.search.serialssolutions.com/?issn=0957-4484&volume=21&issue=44&date=20101105&spage=201&title=Nanotechnology&atitle=A+versatile+nanotechnology+to+connect+ Individual+nano-objects+for+the+fabrication+of+ hybrid+single-electron+devices.&aulast=Bernand
Target Link:http://www.content.com/0957-4484/21/44/201
Target Link:http://www.content.com/0957-4484/21/44/201
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
OpenURL Linking Errors:Non-standard OpenURL
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
OpenURL TargetLinks
Knowledge base
Citation
Full text
Citation details in OpenURL
Citation details matched againstcollection to find appropriate link
Target link created often using citation data
OpenURL is not standard
OpenURL is not standard
1
Request Rejected!Request Rejected!22
No LINKS!No LINKS!33
XX
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
OpenURL Linking Errors:Data elements missing
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
OpenURL TargetLinks
Knowledge base
Citation
Full text
Citation details in OpenURL
Citation details matched againstcollection to find appropriate link
Target link created often using citation data
OpenURL missing data elements
OpenURL missing data elements
1
Item may not match knowledge base. OR elements missing for target link
Item may not match knowledge base. OR elements missing for target link
22
Links missing or broken because of missing pieces
Links missing or broken because of missing pieces
33
XX
Sources(discovery points)
Targets(appropriate full text)
OpenURL Linking Errors:Mistakes in data elements
LinkResolver
LinkResolver
OpenURL TargetLinks
Knowledge base
Citation
Full text
Citation details in OpenURL
Citation details matched againstcollection to find appropriate link
Target link created often using citation data
OpenURL has errors in data elements
OpenURL has errors in data elements
1
Item may not match knowledge base. OR target links are invalid; OR, false matches
Item may not match knowledge base. OR target links are invalid; OR, false matches
22
Links missing or broken because of bad data or WRONG links.
Links missing or broken because of bad data or WRONG links.
33
XX
Summary of possible problems:Current focus for iota
• Structure -- Bad OpenURL
• Completeness -- Data elements missing
• Accuracy -- Data elements wrong
IOTA Working Group
• Improving OpenURL Through Analytics (iota)• Created in 2010• Basic Assumptions:
– Results are achieved through an analytical investigation of how OpenURL links work.
– Practical: Address the links generated by the OpenURL standard, not the standard itself.
– Selective changes to OpenURLs will lead to significant improvement in linking success rate.
• Motto: "small changes. big improvements"
Desired Outcomes
• Develop community-recognized index for measuring the quality of OpenURL links generated by content providers.
• Produce qualitative reports that will help OpenURL providers quickly compare their OpenURL quality to that of their peers.
• Method:– fair;
– transparent;
– scalable across all OpenURLs and their providers.
Focus
1. Core elements:– Contained in IOTA's OpenURL reporting system;– 9 million OpenURLs from libraries and providers.
2. Scoring system based on assumption:– Correlation exists between
• # of core elements ("OpenURL completeness") & • ability of OpenURLs to link to specific content.
3. Weighting assigned to core elements:– Based on relative importance
• spage vs atitle• issn vs jtitle• doi/pmid vs date, etc.
Work in Progress
• Element weighting still in progress:– E.g., importance of identifiers (doi, pmid) vs bibliographic data
(issn, volume, spage).
• Currently, IOTA focuses on OpenURLs from citation sources only. OpenURL quality is also influenced by:– knowledge base,– resolver,– full-text provider (target).
• High "completeness" score of OpenURLs not always indicative of "success" in linking to full texts– Combination of multiple indexes along linking nodes may
provide more complete picture.
IOTA Project Site
IOTA Project Site
Report Types
Report Types
Source Report: vendor or database
Source Report: Elements (vendor)
Element & Pattern Frequency Report
Element & Pattern Frequency Report : Choose Metric
Element & Pattern Frequency Report : Metric = Issue
Click from Element & Pattern Frequency Report to Source Report
Documentation Wiki
Glossary
Provides working definitions of terms such as…
• Elements• Link-to / Target• Patterns • SID• Vendor
IOTA Blog & Twitter
http://openurlquality.blogspot.com/
Find us on TwitterHash Tag #nisoiota
Status
• Web site created• 9 million+ OpenURLs loaded• Initial set of reports available for analysis
of data – publicly available• Work underway on creating a
completeness index• Exploring options with KBART and other
groups for looking at other aspects of OpenURL quality
How can I get involved in IOTA?
If you are a vendor --• Look at IOTA data ... or...• Point your tech folks to our data• This data is meant to help make
improvements in your openURL linking. If you are a librarian -- • Contribute data to IOTA• Help spread the word to vendors• More information on the IOTA project at:
http://openurlquality.niso.org/