OpenURL

OpenURL is a type of URL that contains resource metadata. The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has developed OpenURL and its data container (the ContextObject) as American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard Z39.88. On 22 June 2006, OCLC was named the maintenance agency for the standard.

(the above pulled from Wikipedia, which notes "This article contains too much jargon and may need simplification or further explanation. ")

Projects and products

• SFX is a commercial OpenURL resolver from Ex Libris
• Umlaut is an open source OpenURL resolver that extends the function of SFX

More information

• OpenURL on Wikipedia
• OCLC Research Activities and the OpenURL Standard, OCLC