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This article summarizes the findings of a study on e-resource knowledge bases and OpenURL-based link resolvers sponsored by the National Library of Sweden. The project involved soliciting detailed information from each of the providers of the major products in this genre, reviewing product information available on the web and in published articles, and conducting a survey addressed to libraries using these products. The report identified and presented comparative information on a top tier of products that includes KnowledgeWorks and 360 Link from Serials Solutions; SFX Global KnowledgeBase and the SFX link resolver from Ex Libris; LinkSource and the EBSCO Integrated Knowledge Base from EBSCO and the WorldCat knowledge base from OCLC. A second tier included TOUResolver from TDNet, Gold Rush from the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries and GODOT from Simon Fraser University. Innovative Interfaces, Inc offers the WebBridge link resolver but does not produce a knowledge base. The library survey revealed relatively narrow differences in the statistical results. Serial Solutions emerged as more favorable in most categories except for end-user functionality where Ex Libris received higher ratings. The Global Open Knowledgebase project (GOKb) is noteworthy as a nascent community-based effort to produce a knowledge base. Key trends noted include less emphasis on knowledge bases and link resolvers as stand-alone products as they become integral components of comprehensive discovery and automation products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author addresses how electronic resources acquisition and management processes fit into the library's larger information technology (IT) landscape from development in and outside the library domain. He believes that an OpenURL-enabled application would be immeasurable to libraries and even more useful to its users. He argues that the vastness of content available freely on the Web and unavailable to the systems cannot and should not be ignored.

The article presents information on metadata standards and includes a collection of web addresses for essential resources in this area to help library catalogers. It is stated that metadata standards are an emerging field, where frequent change and development are an ongoing process. Substitute methods for describing digital objects and storing/transmitting data about these objects are useful to explore for a variety of reasons. The list of web addresses includes Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) Standards, lcweb.loc.gov/marc, MARC21 DTDs for SGML and XML, lcweb.loc.gov/marc, Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) http://lcweb.loc.gov/mets.

Managing geospatial metadata records requires a range of techniques. At the University of Idaho Library, we have tens of thousands of records which need to be maintained as well as the addition of new records which need to be normalized and added to the collections. We show a graphical user interface (GUI) tool that was developed to make simple modifications, a simple XSLT that operates on complex metadata, and a Python script with enables parallel processing to make maintenance tasks more efficient. Throughout, we compare these techniques and discuss when they may be useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]