Umlaut: An Open Source Link Resolver Front End

Jonathan Rochkind, Digital Services Software Engineer, Johns Hopkins University. Umlaut is Open Source software that serves as a “front end” to SFX, via the SFX API. Umlaut allows greater ease of advanced interface customization in a way that should be stable across SFX releases, and additional value-added services on top of the SFX Knowledge Base in an effort to search other sources for access and relevant services. Umlaut provides an example of a loosely coupled architecture to support integration of diverse systems. Johns Hopkins Libraries experimentally deployed the Umlaut as their link resolver front-end in January 2008. The talk will cover the history, features, and opportunities of the Umlaut project.