What is an OpenURL?
An OpenURL is the mechanism that makes open linking in the Web-based scholarly information environment possible. The OpenURL standard provides the syntax for transporting bibliographic metadata and identifiers of objects between information services. The OpenURL standard was developed by Oren Beit-Arie, of Ex Libris, and Herbert Van de Sompel, who was then at Ghent University in Belgium (he is currently at the Los Alamos National Laboratory). The OpenURL version 0.1 standard, as submitted to NISO by Beit-Arie and Van de Sompel, is now a widely adopted, de facto standard. OpenURL version 1.0 has been finalized and goes to NISO ballot in early January 2004. OpenURL 1.0 will be known as NISO standard Z39.88(2004) (see http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html). To find out more about the OpenURL standard and to access the OpenURL specification, see http://library.caltech.edu/openurl.
