OpenURL Multi-Resolver Tool for Zotero

The current beta release of the Zotero plugin (2.0b7.6) allows for the use of an OpenURL resolver for accessing online library collections.The resolver allows a Zotero user to search for a Zotero item in a library database of the user’s choice. Zotero at present allows only for the use of a single resolver. Information about this feature can be found here.

I’ve written about Zotero’s OpenURL resolver feature before, in which I described how to set a resolver for Central Michigan University. The same procedure can be used for many other library collections using OpenURL links listed here.

For the purposes of my own research, I have access to four research resources — my employer’s library, my municipal public library, the library of the university through which I’m pursuing current studies, and Google Scholar. By using the resources at my disposal, I’m quickly able to fill in any literature gaps that I might have before resorting to document delivery or printing from microforms.

It doesn’t appear that the capability to add multiple resolvers will be implemented into Zotero anytime soon. Changing my Zotero preferences every time I wanted to change library searches was becoming tedious. To solve this problem I’ve programmed a script that acts as an intermediate resolver. This script converts a single Zotero resolver request into links for requests to several libraries — a Zotero multi-resolver (ZMR).

A demonstration of ZMR can be found here.

At the time of this writing, ZMR is in very rough form — it doesn’t allow customization and only has links to ten library/research collections: Central Michigan University, Google Scholar, OCLC Registry, Open University, Red River College Library, Simon Fraser University, U. S. National Institutes of Health, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, and Winnipeg Public Library. My plans are to add the available OpenURL resolvers and to allow cookie-based configuration for selecting and saving preferred resolvers.

To use ZMR in its current form, simply use the following URL as your OpenURL resolver in the Zotero preferences — http://www.kinasevych.ca/c/200912/06/multiresolver/.