How does OpenURL linking work?

Referring sources (such as Primo or Summon) are repositories of citation metadata. To connect a user to full-text, the referring source first sends an OpenURL link that contains the relevant citation metadata to the link resolver.

Link resolvers (such as SFX, Alma link resolver, or 360 Link) take the incoming OpenURL and use the embedded citation metadata to:

1. Find a title match in the link resolver’s knowledge base

2. Find a portfolio or holding’s match in the library’s subscriptions

3. Construct an outbound link using the citation metadata to the target’s subscribed platform

The outbound link to the target organizes the referring source’s original citation metadata using a provider-specific syntax (often called a “parser” or “linker”). The user will then arrive at the full text of the cited journal, article, book, or book chapter.

As an additional feature, SFX, Alma link resolver, and 360 Link will overwrite or augment the referring source’s citation metadata with metadata from CrossRef or PubMed if the OpenURL has a DOI or PMID. This helps ensure that we use the most accurate and up-to-date metadata to connect users with full text.

We have improved the linking accuracy even more by using specific document IDs (when available) that we receive from the providers.

Provider ID Method

This method works if the provider IDs are part of the OpenURL sent from CDI, in addition to the metadata. The target parser uses the relevant ID to create a link directly to the full text on the provider's platform.

This update increases the accuracy of links and give us the ability to create new article-level links for some of the providers that do not support OpenURL links.

The following table lists the providers that support the Provider ID method: