Link Resolvers: An Introduction for Reference Librarians

Doris Munson

Systems/Reference Librarian Eastern Washington University

dmunson@ewu.edu

Innovative Users Group, May 20-22, 2006

Link Resolvers

• This presentation will focus on using link resolvers to go from a citation in one database to the full-text in another database.

• We will cover how link resolvers work and the data issues and problems often encountered at the reference desk.

• It’s easier to understand how link resolvers work if you first see some examples of how they are used

Citation in FirstSearch

Magic Happens

Full-text of article in ProQuest

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

Link goes to brief display in ProQuest

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Newspaper links to ProQuest are set up a little different

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

Link goes directly to article

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

• The ISSN, ISBN, or title link is offered whether or not the periodical title is owned by EWU Libraries or is available full-text in another database

• If the title is owned, the bibliographic record displays

• If the title is not owned, an error message is displayed

Patrons can also check the library’s online catalogfor print holdings

A link to the catalog is still offered if full-text is not available

Journal Title is owned by EWU

Journal title not is not owned by EWU

Different vendors may display the link differently

•The link may appear as an icon or text. The library may or may not be able to customize the icon and/or text

•The link may appear in different places on the screen

Examples:

ISI Web of Knowledge displays the link as an icon – ISI sets up the link but the icon is supplied by the library

In Silver Platter databases, the link appears as text at the bottom of the full display

How Link Resolvers Work

(Or, How the “Magic Happens”

Box Works)

OpenURLs are what make it all happen

• An openURL is a way of organizing data about something (usually a periodical article) and transferring it to a destination

• The openURL carries data from the citation in a database to the library’s link resolver

• The link resolver uses the data to see what resources should be offered to the patron

• Example of OpenURL for ProQuest:

http://0-openURL.proquest.com.libsys.ewu.edu/in?service=pq&issn=#@ISSN#&volume=#@VOLUME#&issue=#@ISSUE#&spage=#@SPAGE#

(Supplied by Innovative Interfaces, Inc.)

• Example of OpenURL for PsycArticles

http://0-gateway.ut.ovid.com.libsys.ewu.edu/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=fulltext&D=ovft&SEARCH=#@ISSN-HYPHEN#.is.%20and%20#@YEAR#.yr.%20and%20#@SPAGE#.pg.

(From the WebBridge listserv)

• Many of the link resolver vendors include openURLs for popular targets.

• Also, many link resolver software users are willing to share their setups and solutions

• The listserv for a link resolver is a great place to get advice on setting up new targets/resources or hearing about ways to improve existing target/resource setups.

Necessary Pieces

• Link Resolver server and software –EWU uses WebBridge–SFX is another popular choice

• Coverage Database–What takes the most time to

maintain after initial setup

• Resource or Target – database containing the full-text of the article

• Origin or Source – starting database containing the citation

–FirstSearch is often an origin at EWU

–Origin vendor must be openURL enabled

Coverage Database(library maintained)

•Set up coverage database first•Data is obtained from resource vendor(s) or elsewhere – EWU uses Serials Solutions•Loaded into the library’s link resolver server

• Not seen by patrons, “behind the scenes”

• Separate file for each resource

• Ex: ProQuest, JSTOR, EBSCO, etc.

• Contains ISSN, title, starting date, and ending date for each full-text title. Article URL and eISSN are other possible pieces of data.

Resource or Target – database containing the full-text of the article

• Use link resolver software to set up resource(s)

• ProQuest is often a resource, may be an origin if the full-text is not available

• PsycArticles is always a resource because its 100% full-text

Origin – Database containing the citation of an article but not

the full-text

• Set up last – after the resource(s) and coverage database

• Once an origin is set up, the origin will start displaying links to your link resolver

• Need to do setup in link resolver and with the origin vendor(s)

First Search Administration Screen

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

Link ResolverISSN, Title,Or ISBN present?

ISSN and Date in Coverage DatabaseFor Proquest?

ISSN and Date in Coverage DatabaseFor PsycArticles?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Display Link to Online Catalog

Display LinkTo ProQuest

Display Link To PsycArticles

Magic Happens Box Demystified

Why things don’t always work the way they should

The openURL uses the page number to find the article.In this case, there are multiple articles on the same page.

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

The Full-Text link is offered…

But the full-text of the article is not actually available

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

• Sometimes there’s an embargo period not reflected in the Coverage Database

• Usually happens when the database vendor has made a change to their coverage but hasn’t updated their coverage information

• An example is when ProQuest quit carrying Scientific American full-text in December 2003 but didn’t update their files until April 2004 – this is a rare occurrence

• The solution is to update your coverage database in the meantime

The article is indexed in one database

But, an error message is returned

• In this case, the full-text resource (ProQuest) indicates the periodical is full-text. However, certain articles are not included.

• Usually an article is not included because of copyright restrictions

• Something to ask the vendor: Why isn’t the article at least indexed?

Problem: A field in formatted incorrectly

• A link should be offered because an ISSN, ISBN, or title is present

• However, the formatting of the field results in an error message

• Example: First Search GeoRef often does not have the ISSN, ISBN, or book title in the correct format

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

Notice the characters “ISBN”start the ISBN field

The extra characters result in an error message:

When it should really bring back this:

Next Problem:

The same article is indexed under different titles in different

databases

FirstSearch

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

ProQuest

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Then there are the different editions of the same periodical title that have the same ISSN…

FirstSearch indexes one edition…

Image published with permission of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). FirstSearch is a registered trademark of OCLC.

ProQuest indexes a different edition(Note that the volume, issue, date, and page number are the same)

Image published with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Vendors often index different editions of newspapers

• FirstSearch and ProQuest index different editions of the New York Times Newspaper

• One way to get around this is to have the openURL use the article title instead of the page number

– However, this won’t work if the article title changes between editions

Sections may be indexed differently

• One database may index each part of a section as multiple articles…

• while another database indexes the entire section as one article

A search in ERIC with a link to full-text

Notice Title

Yields an error message. Why?

It’s part of a section indexed as one article

Supplements also cause problems

• There is no standard way of citing a supplement

• “Supplement,” “part,” etc. may be spelled out or abbreviated different ways

• The entire supplement may be indexed as one article by one vendor while another vendor indexes each article in the supplement

Other Potential Sources of Problems

• Embargo dates

• Maintenance of coverage database

–Where most of WebBridge maintenance time is spent

–Requires regular updates

–Data is only as good as what vendor supplies

• Multiple ISSN’s in the same record

–For example, Medline puts the eISSN in front of the print ISSN.

– EWU catalogs only the print format. Cataloging adds the eISSN.

• The wrong ISSN in the catalog record

–Notify cataloging so they can fix the problem

EWU owns this title

Why an error message instead of the bib record?

The search by title…

…Retrieves the bib record.

Journal is under a different ISSNError is result of early cataloging after a title change.

Has since been changed to correct ISSN

Questions?

Thank you for coming!

Doris MunsonSystems/Reference Librarian

Eastern Washington University