OpenURL usage data: what are they good for?

The March 2009 issue of Newsline introduced the Shared OpenURL Data Infrastructure Investigation project which explored the potential for services based on aggregated usage data from OpenURL resolvers and the national OpenURL router service ("Gold from straw: usage log data – what are they good for?", Newsline 14.2). The project report, published last month, outlines the type of services explored, their perceived value, and the current limitations on such an initiative.

Following desk research, an online questionnaire and interviews with key stakeholders in the field, EDINA used a private blog to gather feedback on nine scenarios of use from invited participants. We also explored the technical feasibility of providing services based on those scenarios.

We found that while few OpenURL resolvers (with the exception of SFX from ExLibris) collect the type of data required to drive the services explored, the OpenURL router does collect them. Collecting and processing those data would be worthwhile if the services driven by them were efficient and useful.

Most of the participants in our evaluation exercise were interested in some of the nine scenarios. They were most interested in those describing a recommender service and two different applications for enhancing metadata for institutional services. Furthermore, it seems that some services, including the recommender service, would be more useful if based on a global aggregate of data.

EDINA is interested in exploring further the potential value of these data. The report makes the following recommendations:

That the data be made freely available so that others can explore potential applications and mash-ups that were not considered during this project. These data could also be used as the UK contribution to a global aggregate.
That vendors be consulted further to determine whether suitable data could be gathered from OpenURL resolvers.
That a prototype be built to facilitate further exploration of scenarios, technical feasibility and potential applications of these data.

Project report (PDF document to download)