[WEB4LIB] link resolver server - purchase or in-house?

[Thomas Dowling]

Kwangsoo Han wrote:
> This topic might have been discussed before, but I really would like to hear your experiences.
> 
> These days a few companies offer a link resolver system based on 'openURL.'
> Has anyone set up and managed your own production-level 'link resolver server' in your library rather than purchasing?
> I remember I have read a magazine article saying that it is easy to do that because of the flexibility and easiness of 'openURL', but I wonder HOW EASY it would be.
> 
> I encountered an open-source openURL resolver called 'OLinks' (http://olinks.sourceforge.net/). Has anybody have experience with that?
> 

I do - I wrote it.  And the moral of the story is that if *I* can write
a piece of software, it isn't exactly rocket science.  (Getting it
cleanly separated from our own inner workings for distribution on
sourceforge is substantially trickier, and still not completely done.)

My experience is that purchasing a commercial resolver gets you two main
things: a relatively simple database application, and a pre-populated
database of your e-journal subscriptions for the application to work
with*.  OhioLINK was in the unusual position of having very tight
administrative control over our e-journals, so for us populating that
database was easy and it didn't make sense to pay a big ticket price for
the application.  In your case you'll need to weigh the job of
organizing your data against the cost of a commercial resolver.

(*I'm probably oversimplifying.  I know at least one vendor of resolver
tools reads the list, so you may get some clarification and expansion on
this.)


-- 
Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu