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Linking Technologies: an overview
CONCERT conference, 3-4 October 2000
Mark Schregardus
International Director, Ovid Technologies
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Introduction
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Disadvantages to access electronic journals
from disparate sources:
– Licensing
– Managing variable access conditions and terms
– Setting up access appropriate to each publisher
and user
– Training users
– Maintaining links to multiple publishers from a
central homepage
A logical step: … linking from A&I databases!
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Aggregated Full Text
Aggregated electronic journal products like
Journals@Ovid provide fully searchable
text with tightly integrated links between
titles from different publishers
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100% searchable
superior in terms of functionality / features
most extensive linking options
easy administration
seamless, satisfying experience to end users
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Linking Standards ?
Statement:
“There are no standards which
comprehensively address all the issues of
linking”
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Basic parts of a linking transaction
Not addressed because of a lack of a
“standard”:
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metadata description
link syntax
access validation (methods of authentication and
authorisation of institutions/users)
security
link types (HTML, PDF, TIFF, etc.)
error handling
quality control
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Linking Standards ?
Statement:
“There is no linking magic, there is no
standard, it is simply a lot of hard work!”
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Preprocessed/Static vs. Dynamic/live
Links
Closed
vs.
Open
Pre-processed/Static Links:
– computed in a batch process -> build a link
database
– link records describe the relationship of the
source data to the target
Problems:
– possible dead links
– time-consuming
– currency of links because updating of links
database
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Preprocessed/Static vs. Dynamic/live
Links
Closed
vs.
Open
Dynamic/Live Links:
– generated “on-the-fly” through an algorithm, no
database of links
– always current
Issues:
– possible dead links
Customisation is everything -> Ovid
OpenLinks
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Ovid OpenLinks
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Dynamic/Live/Open Links - article level
Always current
You only see links to full text you have access
to
Highly customizable
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by publisher
by journal title
by coverage
by institution / department / user group
Open architecture: worksOwith
CrossRef, SFX,
V I D T E C H N O L O G I E S
etc.
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CrossRef
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Original purpose: to provide a mechanism
whereby individual publisher sites could link
to one another’s full text from references.
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The CrossRef database allows publishers
to register their articles with a DOI and to
look up DOIs that may correspond to the
references in their full text.
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CrossRef - some considerations
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Many publishers and vendors do not
participate
Many publishers and bibliographic vendors link
directly without CrossRef
A number of the “CrossRef publishers” such as
Academic Press and Springer already have
linking agreements with vendors who are
linking directly and not using CrossRef
Some publishers will only link via CrossRef
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CrossRef: what the critics say...
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All CrossRef links lead to the publisher,
even though the “most appropriate” copy of
the full text may reside elsewhere.
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CrossRef publishers control the link
destination, which may not be to the full
text, but to an interim page containing
advertising and promotional information.
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One more linking scheme: SFX
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proposed as comprehensive, universal linking
solution
plans to link citations from all vendors to:
– OPAC
– document delivery
– full text at a publisher site, at a vendor, or in a private
collection
– etc.
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link goes to an intermediate server that presents a
selection of links appropriate to the user
level of customisation?
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SFX
Challenges:
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still in early stage of development
complex logistics
complex implementation/customisation
very labour-intensive
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Linking: a user’s perspective
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Some links go directly to full text, some go to a login
screen or an interim page
Sometimes a link result is “framed”, sometimes every
new link opens a new browser window
Dead links
Target server down
No standards, no uniformity, more than one
solution!
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Summary
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There are many different linking products,
there is no one solution
There is no such thing as linking magic or
standards
Linking is labour-intensive and expensive
Try before you buy
Ask questions!
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Linking products: questions to ask your
vendor
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Ask for a trial and reference sites
Get a list of linking agreements and titles
What are the customisation option - by
publisher, by title, by year, by user group
Dynamic or static links?
If static links, how often are they updated?
Any dead links?
What provisions exist for linking to: OPAC,
Document Delivery, more than one full text
source, private data
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