Herbert van de Sompel
Encyclopedia
Herbert Van de Sompel is a Belgian
librarian
and computer scientist, most known for his role in the development of the Open Archives Initiative
(OAI) and standards such as OpenURL
, Object Reuse and Exchange
, and the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
.
Van de Sompel was born March 20, 1957 in Ghent
, Belgium
. His Ph.D dissertation in 2000 developed the idea of context-sensitive and dynamic linking of scholarly information resources. In this work he developed the "concepts underlying the OpenURL framework for open reference linking in the web-based scholarly information environment." The different software designed from van de Sompel's ideas that form the basis of OpenURL are known as link resolvers. This web services have become widely used type of product within academic libraries. The work on his Ph.D dissertation and later development of the OpenURL standard has led to the development and commercialization of SFX
and a series of products for libraries using this approach pioneered by Van de Sompel.
Van de Sompel currently works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Research Library as the Lead of the Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
and computer scientist, most known for his role in the development of the Open Archives Initiative
Open Archives Initiative
The Open Archives Initiative is an attempt to build a "low-barrier interoperability framework" for archives containing digital content . It allows people to harvest metadata...
(OAI) and standards such as OpenURL
OpenURL
OpenURL is a standardized format of Uniform Resource Locator intended to enable Internet users to more easily find a copy of a resource that they are allowed to access...
, Object Reuse and Exchange
Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange
Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange defines standards for the description and exchange of aggregations of Web resources...
, and the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
OAI-PMH is a protocol developed by the Open Archives Initiative. It is used to harvest the metadata descriptions of the records in an archive so that services can be built using metadata from many archives...
.
Van de Sompel was born March 20, 1957 in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. His Ph.D dissertation in 2000 developed the idea of context-sensitive and dynamic linking of scholarly information resources. In this work he developed the "concepts underlying the OpenURL framework for open reference linking in the web-based scholarly information environment." The different software designed from van de Sompel's ideas that form the basis of OpenURL are known as link resolvers. This web services have become widely used type of product within academic libraries. The work on his Ph.D dissertation and later development of the OpenURL standard has led to the development and commercialization of SFX
SFX (software)
SFX was the first OpenURL link resolver or link server. It remains the most widely-used OpenURL resolver, being used by over 1,500 libraries.Librarians Herbert van de Sompel, Patrick Hochstenbach and their colleagues at Ghent University in Belgium developed the OpenURL framework from 1998 to 2000....
and a series of products for libraries using this approach pioneered by Van de Sompel.
Van de Sompel currently works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
Research Library as the Lead of the Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team.