In the maze of online
reference databases and full text library resources, how do you
find the exact article you need? Is it available online? Is it
in our print collection? You look at the electronic journal list
and check the library catalog, but it’s a tangled web of "check
here, then check there, and perhaps try over there."
To make the process easier, you will now see a green Get This
Item button in most of the Libraries databases. The Libraries
have purchased Article Linker, a link resolver hosted by Serials
Solutions that reads metadata contained in open-URLs to quickly
link you to available electronic articles. Get This Item uses
an open-URL to determine whether the Libraries have access to
the article you want in online full text and brings together
all other means of access—Blais, other library catalogs,
interlibrary loan—in a single window.
What is an open-URL?
Open-URL is a standard syntax that provides
a way to communicate citation information as a web address. That
means that all the relevant citation information for an article,
including author, article & journal titles, volume & issue
numbers, and date are sent in a URL format for quick location
of the full text electronic article in the Libraries' digital
collections.
The open-URL standard is a cooperative effort: citation source
databases must provide the citation information in the metadata
behind their records and publishers must do the same for the
full text articles in their electronic journals. Source metadata
is translated by a link resolver and matched to fulltext targets
identified by the Libraries’ holdings database; when an
appropriate copy is found, a direct link to the article is created.
When no full text is found in the Libraries’ collections,
other ways of searching for the article are presented, including
transfer of the journal title into a Blais catalog search to
look for a print copy.
How Do I use Open-URL?
Just find and click the green Get This
Item button or text. It has been added to most of our online
databases and is even found in the bibliographies of some full
text resources and in RefWorks, the bibliographic citation
management site recently subscribed to by The Colleges. Your
click activates
the Open-URL link resolver and creates a pop-up window displaying
full text and other searching options. (Note: Since Get This
Item uses pop-up windows, be sure your web browser doesn’t
block them. Alternatively, you can choose to add http://libraries.claremont.edu
and http://ry6af4uu9w.search.serialssolutions.com to your list
of approved pop up sites.)
If you have questions about using Get This Item, use the FAQ
link which you’ll find in “Other Resources” in
the Get This Item window, or contact Cindi Trainor, Director
of IT for the Libraries, cindi.trainor@libraries.claremont.edu.
Jezmynne Amergin
Sprague Library
jezmynne.amergin@libraries.claremont.edu
Jason Price
Honnold/Mudd Library
jason.price@libraries.claremont.edu
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