[Ref-Links] Update

[Donald Waters <dwaters@clir.org>]

Colleagues,

I write this note to bring you up to date on the followup from the
NISO/DLF/SSP/NFAIS workshop in February on reference linking. If you have
not seen it, the report is at http://www.niso.org/linkrpt.html.

One of the outcomes of the workshop was a call for the sponsors to appoint
a small working group to follow up on specific issues and prepare a report
for a second invitational workshop.  The sponsors issued a call for
volunteers and very much appreciated the enthusiastic response.  From the
pool of volunteers, they invited the following individuals to participate
in the Reference Linking working group:

William Arms <warms@cnri.reston.va.us>
Helen Atkins <hatkins@isinet.com>
Priscilla Caplan <p-caplan@uchicago.edu>
Dale Flecker <dale_flecker@harvard.edu> 
Clifford Lynch <cliff@cni.org>
Jim Ostell <ostell@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>
Evan Owens <eowens@journals.uchicago.edu>
Mary Grace Palumbo <mgpalumbo@eiq.com>
Norman Paskin <N.Paskin@doi.org>
David Sidman <dsidman@wiley.com>

Bill Arms has kindly agreed to chair the group.

The charge to the group is below (and at http://www.niso.org/reflink.html).
A meeting of the working group is scheduled for April 20.  As you can see
the report of the working group is expected by June 1 in time for the
second invitational workshop to be held on June 9 in Boston in conjunction
with the SSP conference. More details on the June 9 workshop will be
forthcoming later in April.

Best regards,

Don Waters

----------------------

CHARGE:

Reliable systems of linking reference citations to journal articles are
needed to support scholarship and to preserve the integrity over time of
works published digitally. At the invitational workshop on reference
linking held on February 11, 1999, the participants identified three major
components for constructing such systems: 
-- an identifier for the work; 
-- a reverse lookup mechanism for discovering the identifier of a work from
its citation; 
-- a mechanism for taking the reader from a citation to a particular item 

There are important variable factors associated with each component. For
example, different identifiers are likely needed not just for works, but
also for manifestations and particular items. Do digital identifier schemes
currently make these distinctions? Also, in order to look up an identifier
from a citation, a minimal amount of descriptive metadata must be
associated with the identifier. But how much? And the mechanisms to take
the reader from citation to item may require corollary mechanisms to
identify those locations of an item to which the reader has access. 

The design of reference linking systems may be straightforward in the
simple cases when there is a one-to-one match between an item and the
manifestation of a work and when these items are under the control of a
single provider. However, as digital publishing is maturing, the variables
in play require a more complex architecture. These variables include the
existence of multiple, distributed copies of items of a work, the need to
understand in what role a user is operating, with what organizations a user
is affiliated, to what manifestations or copies of the content (and under
what arrangements) those institutions may have access, where the user is
located, how performance expectations affect the specific content selected
for use, what formats and versions of content the user is capable of
viewing, how much the user is willing to pay, and similar issues. 

To advance the results of the reference linking workshop, and to help
stimulate the design and development of effective systems of reference
linking, the sponsors of the workshop and the Coalition for Networked
Information have assigned a small working group to draft a report that will
address the following points: 

-- Review the three components of reference linking systems identified in
the workshop and ensure that no component is missing and that the
significant technical variables affecting the development of each component
are identified. 

-- Focus on the complex set of variables at play and conceptually walk
through the design of possible resolver solutions that take account of the
relevant variables. 

-- Document the component review and the conceptual walk through of
possible reference linking systems, and define the nature and scope of
research, user consultation and other kinds of work necessary to foster the
development of general systems of reference linking for marketplace testing. 

The sponsors will facilitate a meeting of the working group as soon as
possible with the aim of producing a draft report by June 1. 
The Working Group's report will be discussed at the second invitational
workshop to be held June 9, 1999 in Boston. 


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