There's lots of talk about OpenURL link resolvers in academic and public libraries. In a nutshell, these OpenURL services direct the user from an online citation containing just the basic data, such as journal volume, page number and abstract, to what most of us are really after, the full-text of the cited material. Some can even direct the user to the full-text version that is licensed and provided by their library rather than one that isn't available to their users. Couldn't a legal version of this concept be a great boon for legal researchers? Let me explain.
Lexis, Westlaw and other online publishers already link to the full-text of cases, statutes, articles, etc. that are available on their own system, though never to materials elsewhere. Since they have a very large body of data available, often the full-text is available and linked.
But what about a smaller publisher, let's say CCH or BNA. Wouldn't it be great if you could click on a link in one of the CCH reporters to the UCLA Law Journal, and have it link to the full-text on another service, asking for your password along the way? How about a link to a regulation, statute or case? Perhaps even free web resources could include links to premium materials.
Linking to full-text could be easy enough, but linking to, let's say, the UCLA Law Journal on LEXIS, because they're the service of choice for a firm, gets a little trickier, but is similar to what some of the Open URL link resolvers do.
There are certainly competitive issues in play that could prevent this from happening, but I can dream, can't I?
For more information on OpenURL based link resolvers, see The Many Facets of Managing Electronic Resources, by Marshall Breeding, Computers in Libraries, Jan. 2003.
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