Access Problem Solving (digprob)
Deciding Which URL to Use for Ejournals
Use the Open URL whenever possible.
- Use the print ISSN in the URL if we have cataloged the print (even if we have closed print holdings).
- Use the e-ISSN in the URL if we have cataloged only the electronic version and have no print holdings.
How can you tell if a provider offers Open URLs?
- Check in Vera for other titles offered by the publisher / provider to get a sense of the URL construction and to see if we've used Open URLs before.
- Check the publisher / provider web site for a section called "Linking Options" or "For Librarians." Those parts of the site will tell you what your options are for URL construction, and in particular if they support Open URLs.
- Ask the Sales Rep., Customer Service, or Technical Support if they offer Open URLs.
Should we retrospectively change existing URLs to Open URLs?
Only in the course of doing your regular work. It makes sense to have all of the titles in a single "package" use the same URL construction, but we have no plans to do any sort of project to clean that all up. Clean them up as you have time, as you come across them.
If there is no Open URL option, look for the most stable URL you can find.
What do we mean by "stable?" We mean that there is no reliance on a script (e.g., cgi) to build the URL on the fly; the URL just is what it is.
- no scripts to build the URL
- clean and concise URL (ACM example)
- no institution-specific or session-specific information in the URL; it will be stripped for the CONSER record and put in a 956 (local URL) rather than an 856 (URL) field in Barton. We generally only have this information in password-controlled resources anyway.
- no server or machine specific URLs (e.g., use www.ingentaconnect.com rather than giorgio.ingentaconnect.com)
- use the publisher-preferred or -recommended URLs. The IEEE and JSTOR are two examples of publishers who provide the URL they think you should use. Sometimes these URLs function as PURLs (Persistent URLs) meaning that even if they change their whole server structure the URLs they gave you will still work.
- When in doubt, talk to each other (SerCat and EJ Team) so we are sure to be meeting the needs of both groups and are presenting consistent information in our databases.
Pick the URL that goes to the journal's main page, as long as the main page provides a link to the archives / list of issues available.
Other choices would be the current issue page or the page that lists all available issues. CONSER prefers the main page, and the Open URL tends to lead to the main page as well.
If the publisher doesn't offer title-specific URLs...
use the URL for the page that lists the individual titles and add a Title Note / 866 $z to explain out to pick out the title (e.g., Thomas Telford, Haworth Press).
Whether you use Open URLs or not, record information about why a certain URL construction was chosen for a given publisher or interface in the Licensed Notes field of the package-level record in Vera.
Lingering Questions (to be answered as they arise):
1. Who makes the final decision if we can't agree what the URL construction should be for a particular title / publisher / provider? We should be working toward consensus, but what if it fails?
2. Do we need a definition of what the Open URL is, what it does in general and what it does specifically in Barton, Vera, and SFX?