[Web4lib] hundreds of COinS browser extensions

[Daniel Chudnov]

OCLC has graciously provided access to a subset of their OpenURL Resolver
Registry [1] for experimenting with the COinS approach to dynamic resolver
resolving [2].  COinS specifies a simple way to mark up OpenURLs in
HTML so that they may be processed by external tools like bookmarklets.
In particular, COinS can be helpful in solving problems like:

 - How can I post an OpenURL link on my own weblog that others 
   can resolve to their own institutions?

 - If I'm studying at U. Florida, but visiting Florida State U., 
   how can I bounce back from FSU's resolver to my resolver at UF
   so I can do UF things with a link?

 - If I'm building some NewFangledService (tm), how can I support
   OpenURL linking without having to build up a database of ip ranges?

In other words, if OpenURL started out being about finding an "appropriate
copy", COinS is about finding an "appropriate resolver" (among other
things).

COinS hasn't spread like wildfire -- yet.  This is largely due to the
need for users to have "COinS Activating Agents", a.k.a. "things that tell
your browser which resolver you use."  With the OCLC data, there's now a
page you can visit to obtain browser extensions for nearly 900 different
resolvers.  And, if your library's resolver isn't listed, you can use
an extension which utilizes OCLC's own ip-address-range-aware resolver
to try resolve your location to an appropriate institution near you.

To give it a try, visit:

  http://curtis.med.yale.edu/dchud/resolvable/

...and follow the instructions to search for your institution and set
up your browser.  You can even just pick one at random just to see how
it works, if, say, you don't have a resolver nearby.  (Just don't abuse
the privilege.)  There are several COinS-enabled sites listed you can
test with your COinS-enabled browser.

Note that this is mostly an experiment, but it's pretty cool when it 
works!


  -Dan


[1] http://www.oclc.org/productworks/urlresolver.htm
[2] http://ocoins.info/


-- 
Daniel Chudnov
Yale Center for Medical Informatics
(203) 737-5789