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<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you, Anna and Melissa, for this excellent DOI debate! You’ve framed the issue so well - it could be required reading for both publishers and e-resources librarians.
<span style="font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif">😉</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the question of improving KB linking versus relying on DOIs and Crossref functionality:<br>
Users increasingly start from outside library systems. Tools that connect them to subscription access need to be embedded where they encounter metadata or full text. Plugins help, but come with limitations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’d love to see Crossref support affiliation-aware linking. I know it’s old school, but they links would ideally be OpenURLs based on user affiliation. The OpenURL would use the linking methods set up in the KB *<b>and</b>* would find articles
and content in our aggregator sources.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Athena<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">Athena Hoeppner </span></i></b><i><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">(she/her/hers)</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.2in;background:white"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">Interim Associate Dean, Resources and Discovery<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.2in;background:white"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">Discovery Services Librarian | University Librarian</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.2in;background:white"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">University of Central Florida | <a href="mailto:athena@ucf.edu"><span style="color:#0563C1">athena@ucf.edu</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.2in;background:white"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424"><a href="https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/e7ed510b338643a092fb237960b6be17@ucf.edu/meetingtype/V46-JYn9vEWmqVPIUyuevA2?anonymous" target="_blank" title="Original URL: https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/e7ed510b338643a092fb237960b6be17@ucf.edu/meetingtype/V46-JYn9vEWmqVPIUyuevA2?anonymous. Click or tap if you trust this link."><span style="color:#9900FF">Schedule
Appointment</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Eril-l <eril-l-bounces@lists.eril-l.org>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, October 24, 2025 9:55 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <eril-l@lists.eril-l.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Eril-l] Crossref multiple resolution of DOIs and multiple canonical archives: whither DOI vs openurl?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Melissa,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I think I agree with pretty much all of that.[1] I think we must disagree mostly on <i>what should we (librarians) do now?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">What I want to do is to focus on advocating that KBs (including open ones like Unpaywall) should not use
<a href="http://doi.org/">doi.org</a>. Since publishers are often the source of the linking metadata in KBs, we probably need to be talking to publishers about that. Publishers can use whatever they want for linking resolution within their own websites, but
KBs (and the library link resolvers built on them) need to be more picky. A useful link resolver should be able to produce linking so that if the best way to find an article on a particular platform is to pass on OpenURL string, it passes an OpenURL string,
and if the best way is to pass a DOI by itself—to the platform, not to <a href="http://doi.org/">
doi.org</a>, which knows nothing about our users—it passes a DOI. And if the best way is some other syntax—even proprietary, opaque identifier strings—it should pass that. This is a link resolver's job: to take the bibliographic and user data which is passed
to it and turn it into a link <i>to the associated object</i> at which <i>the user can access the object</i>. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">When our institutional link resolver takes users to the wrong place, I either override the KB linking or complain to the KB vendor (or both). I haven't tried to systematically identify whether it's a
<a href="http://doi.org/">doi.org</a> link which is the problem; I don't have time for that.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">My institution does use LibKey. I treat it as "just another" KB, but I'm happy we have it, even if I occasionally have to request corrections in it, too. LibKey's preference to avoid multi-resolution is a helpful approach for most (of our)
library use cases.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anna<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">[^1]: "[...]so it's not just a question of publishers and librarians using it wrong." I would say, "...so it's not <i>just</i> a question of publishers and librarians
<i>failing to use it most effectively in the library context</i>." The DOI system isn't a library link resolver. I don't think it should be. As long as we don't treat it like one (see my longish paragraph above), I think we're good. Library link resolvers are
specialized tools useful in only some contexts. Other contexts need other tools.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I'm sorry I didn't more clearly articulate "the DOI system is not a library link resolver" and instead said "the DOI is not itself a location descriptor". (I don't think it is, but this isn't as to-the-point as I should have been.)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-----<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anna Shields (she/they)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">E-resources Librarian, Interim Systems Librarian<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Williams College<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">on the unceded lands of the <a href="https://mohican-nsn.gov/" target="_blank">
People of the Waters that Are Never Still</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:as67@williams.edu" target="_blank">as67@williams.edu</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">(413) 597-2041<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 9:17<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>AM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I hope everyone else isn't bored with this exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">For the authoritative description of the "DOI system", I figure the right source is the DOI Handbook,
<a href="https://www.doi.org/doi-handbook/DOI_Handbook_Final.pdf" target="_blank">
https://www.doi.org/doi-handbook/DOI_Handbook_Final.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">It makes very clear in sections 1.2 - 1.3.1 that "resolving" a DOI to a web address is very much an appropriate part of what it is for, eg:<br>
"The DOI name can be resolved to a resource, such as a web or internet resource, metadata describing the entity, a landing page with access to further resources, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">For example, a DOI name representing an article resolves to the web address of the HTML file version of the article."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">That quote is in the subsection labeled "Basic Principles" and is even in the first bullet of that section, so it's not just a question of publishers and librarians using it wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Sections 1.5 and 1.6 elaborate on the web site resolution concept. And large parts of the rest of the document are focused on the details of "resolution", with most examples involving
going from the DOI to a document on the web.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">We might be quibbling about what DOI "System" means. The Handbook clearly posits that that system is intended to include, or even be centrally about, resolution services and organizations.
In that sense, the DOI "system" includes Crossref and other organizations (including knowledge base (KB) management companies like EBSCO and the individual publishers) that implement the vision of DOI as a resolution solution that is clearly described in that
Handbook.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">It even directly addresses the "multiple resolution" issue that started this thread, in 5.4.2 (PDF page 67).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I'd like to suggest that the minimal multiple resolution system that Crossref has been trying is inadequate, as their own experience with feedback has revealed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">And that what we librarians need is some kind of combined service that "knows" of the multiple URLs/"resources" for a given DOI, and can then get enough affiliation information
about the user (assuming the resources aren't OA) to filter the list down to the ones the user can actually access. I feel like I just described what we already have with KBs, except those are starting to themselves rely on the DOI resolution as more and more
content providers are eschewing supporting OpenURL and using DOIs instead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I just ran an sql query on a recent full download of all content in our KB, to see how many of our records use "<a href="http://doi.org/" target="_blank">doi.org</a>" in the URL
field.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I found 33 "packages" (mostly equates to publishers) with a combined total of 44,000 titles using
<a href="http://doi.org/" target="_blank">doi.org</a> as their primary URL. The vast majority are Cambridge UP.<br>
That's out of about 3.3 million non-deduped records.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">That doesn't seem like a crisis. However, in our discovery system, there are also "custom" links that don't use the KB links to take the user to the full text, but some other way
of generating a "persistent" link, including OpenURL but also if the citation record has a DOI, using that. I can't generate any kind of count on how often the DOI is trying to take our user to the full text.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">But I know it fails sometimes because such an incident is what got me started on this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Do any of you see situations where your discovery system uses DOI and takes your user to the "wrong" full-text copy? If it never happens, are you using some commercial service outside
of your discovery system, like LibKey?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Melissa Belvadi</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="mailto:mbelvadi@upei.ca" target="_blank">mbelvadi@upei.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Make an appointment: <a href="https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/" target="_blank">https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l-bounces@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l-bounces@lists.eril-l.org</a>>
on behalf of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 23, 2025 4:03 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Eril-l] Crossref multiple resolution of DOIs and multiple canonical archives: whither DOI vs openurl?</span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:10.0pt;background:#FFE599"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">CAUTION:</span></b><span style="color:black">
</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">This email originated from outside of UPEI. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. If you are uncertain, please use
the Report Message button in Outlook and delete this email. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:10.0pt;background:#FF9999"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">WARNING:</span></b><span style="color:black">
</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">The sender of this email could not be verified and may not match the person in the 'FROM' field. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know
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<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Melissa,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">A discussion of 'canonical home(s)' does seem to assume that the location of a digital object is an inherent part of its identity. I am reluctant to share that assumption. It looks to me likely to elide many of the attributes of digital
objects which make them different from tangible objects.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I don't object to using a DOI as <i>part</i> of a locator. This seems very reasonable, and one could argue that this is what the
<a href="http://doi.org/" target="_blank">doi.org</a> resolver and Crossref are doing. (And PLoS definitely described a system doing that.) But I also don't object to multiple resolution if you supply such a system with a DOI and nothing more. The trouble seems
to me to come in when you ask a third-party system to act as a link resolver when you pass it <i>nothing but</i> a DOI. (At a minimum, I'd think for closed access works you'd also want to pass user affiliation, for instance.)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I don't think the DOI system is the problem here. Publisher practice <i>might</i> be a problem. Librarian practice<i> might</i> be a problem. Librarian and user expectations <i>might</i> be a problem. But the DOI system is doing one thing—I
think its primary goal—rather well, and I think it's able to do that so well because the system <i>doesn't</i> try to do the locating part. Mess with it, and I think you'll get something worse.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anna<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-----<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anna Shields (she/they)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">E-resources Librarian, Interim Systems Librarian<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Williams College<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">on the unceded lands of the <a href="https://www.mohican.com/brief-history/" target="_blank">
People of the Waters that Are Never Still</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:as67@williams.edu" target="_blank">as67@williams.edu</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">(413) 597-2041<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:32<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>PM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Interesting perspective, and can get us into a semantic debate about whether the location of the digital object is inherently part of its identification. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">The What and Whys of DOIs<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC261894/" target="_blank">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC261894/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Many major academic publishers are using the DOI URL as their "direct to title" URL, eg in our holdings knowledge base (for us that's EBSCO). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I think the train has left on objecting to the use of DOIs as a "locator". And I think the server location as resolved by Crossref is carrying a kind of metadata that is related
to the object, namely who is the canonical "owner" (not in the copyright sense, but the maintenance responsibility sense) of the object. I'm sure a lot of you are like me in playing around with multiple browser plugins like GetFTR, Nomad, Unpaywall, etc.
that can lead users to non-canonical copies. And with the growth in multiple canonical "homes" (the topic of my original post in this thread), that "owner" metadata is getting blurry. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I don't have a perfect answer, but I'm thinking that we do need to think on a big scale about modifying DOI, or at least DOI as implemented by Crossref, to deal with the multiple
"owners" problem. A meta question might be: where does the responsibility for solving this problem lie? Crossref? Our individual knowledge-base vendors? Some kind of third-party (open or commercial) service that starts with the 'standard' DOI and can cross-check
against our knowledge base to find the "right" canonical one for our patrons? Other?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Melissa Belvadi</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="mailto:mbelvadi@upei.ca" target="_blank">mbelvadi@upei.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Make an appointment: <a href="https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/" target="_blank">https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l-bounces@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l-bounces@lists.eril-l.org</a>>
on behalf of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 23, 2025 10:52 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Eril-l] Crossref multiple resolution of DOIs and multiple canonical archives: whither DOI vs openurl?</span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:10.0pt;background:#FFE599"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">CAUTION:</span></b><span style="color:black">
</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">This email originated from outside of UPEI. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. If you are uncertain, please use
the Report Message button in Outlook and delete this email. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:10.0pt;background:#FF9999"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#17202A">WARNING:</span></b><span style="color:black">
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<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I am happy to be demonstrated wrong, but it seems to me that the problem is one of treating an <i>identifier</i> as a <i>locator</i>. A DOI is meant to uniquely identify a unit of scholarly expression. A link resolver might use a DOI to
help correctly identify the work it has been asked to locate, but the DOI is not itself a location descriptor.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Treating Crossref as a link resolver seems like a bad mistake.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anna<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-----<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anna Shields (she/they)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">E-resources Librarian, Interim Systems Librarian<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Williams College<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">on the unceded lands of the <a href="https://www.mohican.com/brief-history/" target="_blank">
People of the Waters that Are Never Still</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:as67@williams.edu" target="_blank">as67@williams.edu</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">(413) 597-2041<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 9:38<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>AM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi Melissa,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for bringing this up, this is a concern here too -- the multiple resolution screen, while somewhat rare, is confusing for both patrons and staff alike. Our most frequent instance of this happening is actually with Bloomsbury resources,
with multiple resolutions to 2 different Bloomsbury collections. A user can't be expected to know which one they can access the item through, and honestly, sometimes I don't know either offhand without looking it up. Our e-resources team has largely avoided
a stance on whether or not we recommend using DOIs, but I personally avoid using them, primarily for this reason.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Gail<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Gail Murray (she/her) <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Smith College Libraries<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">413.585.2925<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 8:44<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>AM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <<a href="mailto:eril-l@lists.eril-l.org" target="_blank">eril-l@lists.eril-l.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Hi, all!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">This is about DOIs for articles that have more than one "canonical"/official publisher home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">That can happen, and does frequently, when a journal changes publishers and BOTH publishers maintain an official archive for PCA libraries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">For instance, the 2006-2011 of the journal, Frontiers of History in China, where Brill has 2006-present and Springer-Nature, the previous publisher, has 2006-2011. Our only access
is on SN because we did not continue the subscription in 2012 when Brill got it. But the DOI in our discovery service only leads to Brill, not SN.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">The NISO Journal Transfer database,
<a href="https://journaltransfer.issn.org/" target="_blank">https://journaltransfer.issn.org/</a>, documents when journals transfer and includes whether the archive up to that point will be hosted by the transferring or receiving publisher. Sometimes it is
actually both.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">It was recently brought to my attention that Crossref has a "multiple resolution" (MR) system, such that when following some DOI links, the user gets a list of links to each of
the publisher platforms that are still "official" (I think by NISO's concept of that).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I asked Crossref about what I should do to get an "MR" for this journal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">This is part of the reply I got:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">However, just to set expectations, multiple resolution is used quite rarely. Most publishers prefer that DOIs resolved directly to the version of the content on their particular
platform. And, the feedback we get from librarians about multiple resolution has honestly been primarily negative, because they don't like users to be faced with another decision point or extra friction in accessing the content. (we do have a workaround
to 'bypass' multiple resolution, for that reason, and resolve directly to either the primary or one of the secondary URLs) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<div style="margin-left:30.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">That said, the more typical solution is for libraries to link to content, not directly via the DOI, but using an OpenURL link resolver or discovery tool integration that will direct
users to the appropriate subscription version for which they have full text access. It's possible to integrate metadata from Crossref into such a tool, to facilitate linking more effectively. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">As I read and re-read that answer, it occurred to me to question whether the entire point of the DOI system is breaking down. When Crossref itself tells me not to use DOI links,
but instead openurl links, which is where we were 20 years ago and whose problems were a big part of the reason for supporting the adoption of the DOI ecosystem in the first place, I feel like we are moving backwards in a context that I thought we had solved
already.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">I know that DOI still works for "most" situations. But openurl also worked for "most situations", and still does. I worked at a library that was one of the very earliest adopters
of openurl, and even wrote my own openurl resolver for my library before the commercial products existed. I have a long memory of how we got from there to here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">So I wanted to consult your collective wisdom about this issue, both from the immediate "best service to patrons today" perspective and the "long-term where should our ecosystem
be going next?" perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Your thought would be most welcome!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124;background:white">Melissa Belvadi</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124">Collections Librarian<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124">University of Prince Edward Island<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124"><a href="mailto:mbelvadi@upei.ca" target="_blank">mbelvadi@upei.ca</a> 9</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124">02-566-0581</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124">ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4433-0189<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124">my
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public calendar</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124;background:white"><a href="https://mbelvadi.youcanbook.me/" target="_blank">Make an appointment</a> via YouCanBookMe</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124;background:white">My pronouns are
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif;color:#1F1F1F">ಅವರು</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto;color:#1F1F1F">/</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif;color:#1F1F1F">ಅವರನ್ನು</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124;background:white">My emails are sent during the hours that I work and I understand that you will respond during the hours that you work.</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#202124"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">_______________________________________________<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">_______________________________________________<br>
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