In my previous post, (OUseful Info: Social Bookmarking the Academic Way) I included, but didn't link, a couple of DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers).
"DOIs are names assigned to any entity for use on digital networks. They are used to provide current information, including where they (or information about them) can be found on the Internet. Information about a digital object may change over time, including where to find it, but its DOI will not change." DOI Foundation
Just to recall waht they look like, here are the ones from that previous post:
- doi:10.1045/april2005-hammond
- doi:10.1045/april2005-lund
So - what can we do with them?
Well for a start, we can find the resource from them using a DOI Resolver:
The DOI Foundation also provide some bookmarklets for retrieving a document if you highlight it's DOI in your browser. You can find the bookmarklets here.
When I get an evening's playtime, I'll cook up a Greasemonkey script to linkify DOIs that can be scraped off a page (a bit like my Postcode linkifier or an ISBN linkifier.
It might also be worth trying to work out a few sensible DOI toolbar buttons...