IOTA:
Improving OpenURLs Through Analytics
JUST PUBLISHED:
NISO TR-05-2013, IOTA Working Group Summary of Activities and Outcomes
Group to Conduct Two-Year Project to Evaluate Metrics
The OpenURL Quality Metrics Working Group -- otherwise known as IOTA (Improving OpenURLs Through Analytics) builds on the work already underway by Adam Chandler (Database Management and Electronic Resources Research Librarian, Central Library Operations, Cornell University Library) to investigate the feasibility of creating industry-wide, transparent and scalable metrics for evaluating and comparing the quality of OpenURL implementations across content providers. The catalyst for this was a 2008/2009 Mellon Planning Grant (http://hdl.handle.net/1813/23171). A blog (http://openurlquality.blogspot.com/) was established by Chandler to chronicle the progress. Log processor and reporting software is already in production (http://openurlquality.niso.org/). At the time this project was orginally proposed in November 2009, the reporting system included data from Cornell University’s link resolver and a month of EBSCO link resolver log data. This is envisioned as a two-year project. At the end of two years an evaluation process will be conducted and decision made on whether or not to continue the initiative, to be provided in a published NISO Technical Report.
This proposal was reviewed and approved by the Business Information Topic Committee on Tuesday, December 8, 2009. As this project focuses specifically on the testing and validating of the metrics used to determine OpenURL Quality, and not on the OpenURL standard itself (ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004, ANSI/NISO Z39.88 - The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services), it was determined that this work falls under the umbrella of the Business Information Topic Committee. However, this committee will work closely with the Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee -- which provides oversight to the related OpenURL standard and NISO/UKSG KBART Recommended Practice -- to keep them informed on progress and to solicit feedback on the work when needed.