resources, vLib portal

ISI Web of Knowledge cross search released

In addition to Web of Science (including Conference Proceedings), major ISI WoK databases (Biosis Previews, Current Contents, Zoological Record) are now cross-searchable on vLib – example (MPG on-campus only) – which may be considered to be used as an alternative to the WoK All Databases search.

The metadata quality of the All Databases data source does not seem to match the quality of data as retrieved from single databases, which involves all sorts of disadvantages, e.g. problems with full text linking (wrong metadata is sent to the link resolver which is thus unable to provide a correct full text link).

Please note that cross search in general may or may not deliver results as desired. Please see vLib search tips for more information.

sfx link resolver

How many browser windows would you like?

2 Comments

Over the last 6 months, we received some contradictory feedback regarding where the MPG/SFX server should open the options offered in the service menu (e.g. the link to the electronic full text). Currently, a click on a service name opens a new browser window to load the external location. All links use a named target window, thus whenever you choose another service, this should open in the same window.

From our users’ feedback we learned that this preference is not shared by everyone. Some users suggested to open a new window with each click, while others requested that SFX shouldn’t open new browser windows at all. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to follow the experts’ recommendation ("Place users in control") in this case, because the MPG/SFX menu does not contain "real" hypertext links. Instead, clicking a service name submits a web form which calls a script to generate the appropriate target URL according to the information available. Therefore, well known browser short cuts (like the context menu) are not available to the experienced user.

However, we want to match the user’s expectation and therefore consider to offer various options. An example is available on the MPG/SFX test instance (check the additional buttons new and “blank”).

Any thoughts or feedback is highly appreciated….

exLibris

Returning from Madrid

The International Group of Ex Libris Users (IGeLU) is an association of customers of one or several products offered by ExLibris Ltd. This group meets once year to share user experiences as well as to hear about upcoming product developments.

Between September 6-10, 2007 the 3rd IGeLU Conference has been hosted by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research in Madrid. Ex Libris took the chance to introduce its vision for the “next generation library system” which emphasis the decoupling of front-end interfaces from back-office services. While some effects of this strategic alignment became tangible over the course of the event (e.g. MetaLib will be re-implemented completely), many other fundamental questions remained open (e.g. who will be in control of the global data service layer?).

But the biggest surprise for me personally was the huge interest in the poster session on Tuesday afternoon:

View image on flickr (photo by lukask)

My colleague Silvia Munding and I presented the integration of e-book holdings into the service menu of the MPG/SFX link resolver and spent the complete time to discuss motivation and details of our setup with the audience. Wow! We even ran out of handouts in the middle of the session, but the electronic version of the poster is deposited on the edoc server. Thanks a lot for your interest and all the helpful suggestions.

You are interested in details about the IGeLU conference? You may start with checking out

  • our IGeLU 2008 trip report in the CoLab wiki (access restricted)
  • Ed Corrado’s comprehensive blog posting
  • more pictures tagged with “igelu” on flickr
sfx link resolver, tools

Citation Linker has grown up

Most of you have already been introduced to the Citation Linker which is a simple tool to access MPG/SFX services for a known reference by entering information manually. The number of monthly SFX requests per sources prove that the Citation Linker (“CITATION”) is very frequently used and therefore it was not really surprising to receive enhancement requests for this tool.

Your wish is our command! Please welcome two additional tabs on the citation linker form:
screen shot of tabs in citation linker

  • Chapter helps you entering data for items published in a book, see example.
  • Patent allows the location of issued patents and patent applications, see example.

Please note that only a limited number of services are available for the two object types, especially for patent literature. But maybe adding the tabs will lead to more requests related to these genres which would be a good reason to add additional services. Let’s see…

COinS, question and answer, sfx link resolver

Bringing MPG/SFX buttons to your reference list?

Two questions from my mail inbox today:

Can I add MPG/SFX buttons to my individual reference list? And if yes: Does this make any sense?

The answer to the first question is straight forward: Yes, you can link every reference to the corresponding MPG/SFX service menu. This requires you to create OpenURL links including all relevant bibliographic information and to add these links to the HTML code of your reference list. Our OpenURL generator (in German) may help you with this task.

But there is no definitive answer to the second question. Obviously, a link to the MPG/SFX resolver is especially helpful to staff of the Max Planck Society because the menu will offer relevant services for this specific target group. But users outside the MPG IP ranges are not assisted in such a comfortable way. The only help provided is a link to OCLC’s OpenURL Resolver Registry which can be used to redirect the request to a local resolver.

If you want to share your reference list with the public, you may consider adding COinS alternatively. COinS (“ContextObjects in Spans”) provide a measure to embed bibliographic information into the HTML code of a web page. Afterwards, the information can been used by your browser to display links to an OpenURL link resolver (such as MPG/SFX) or to download the record into a reference manager.

Further reading:

exLibris, materials

First thoughts on ExLibris' Open-Platform Strategy

The vLib portal as well as the MPG/SFX link resolver are built on software products provided by ExLibris Ltd. Some weeks ago, the company announced its new Open-Platform Strategy which is not too new according to their own words:

Ex Libris embraces openness. […] In recent years, Oren Beit-Arie, chief strategy officer at Ex Libris, affirmed product openness as a strategic direction and one of the company’s core values and set the open-platform program in motion to transform the vision into a concrete plan.

As ExLibris customer, we in principle welcome this distinct statement for openness, but the idea and its potential impact remained abstract on the first view. Particularly the new developer zone (called EL Commons) looks a bit pre-release and the strategical shift hasn’t raised much attention in the user community until now. Yesterday, I stumbled upon the podcast of a conversation between Richard Wallis and Oren Beit-Arie and found it extremely interesting. In this interview Oren made many points I strongly agree to. For example:

So, in other words, the open-platform strategy is about making sure that whenever we develop a product or a service, we develop it and deliver it in a way that is basically the opposite of a black box, that has lots of hooks and lots of entry and exit points that customers will be able to use, either to enter or to take out data or to plug in and interface and interoperate with other applications […]

Hurray, that is exactly what we are looking for! The strategy will hopefully lead ExLibris to discontinue the additional charging of product APIs and to move towards adapting more standards, e.g. SRU interfaces for Aleph/Digitool/Primo or RSS feeds for MetaLib IRD records and baskets. I feel slightly excited…

resources, sfx link resolver

Activating reference links on HighWire Press

Some time ago, we learned that the HighWire Press platform supports the activation of OpenURLs in the reference sections of selected journals. This allows us to link these references to the corresponding MPG/SFX service menus, e.g.:

screen shot of reference section in PNAS

Users from MPG will now find MPG/SFX links on following HighWire-hosted journal platforms:

Please note that OpenURL links are currently displayed for selected journal references only, but Oxford University Press already announced:

Future releases will include functionality to display OpenURL links for a wider range of references (for example, books) as well as additional metadata fields in OpenURL-encoded links (e.g. issue values).

… that sounds promising!

question and answer, vLib portal

vLib, exporting records with IE 7.0

1 Comment

might give you a hard time. In fact, it looks as if many problems of this type have been reported to the provider of the digital library software the vLib portal is based on.

Internet Explorer 7.0, by default, does not automatically prompt users for download of file resources without their consent.

Unfortunately, vLib tends to send the download request "en passant", and is unable to repeat it (or present a page that contains a link to the file resource) after users have confirmed the download.

A massive but efficient response is turning on automatic download prompt – see http://vlib.mpg.de/vlib-browser-notes.html

Still, some versions of IE 7.0 may claim to be unable to find a file resource on the server – which is not true, as apache logfiles clearly indicate that the resource has been delivered. However, IE 7.0 is likely to be unable to cache it properly, and hence does not "find" it.

No apache settings that influence caching were apt to solve the problem. An update of IE 7.0 is probably a good idea in this case. Comments welcome.

A fix has been announced for the next minor release of the MetaLib software, so that file resources may be downloaded, even though a download has been tackled by IE 7.0’s security mechanisms.

question and answer, resources, sfx link resolver

Why not participating in Google Scholar’s library link program?

4 Comments

Google Scholar offers a preference called library links which enables users to access licensed resources through their institutional link resolver. This works with any SFX server, but we haven’t registered the MPG link resolver and therefore you won’t find the Max Planck Society (MPG) being listed:

Screenshot Google Scholar preferences

So, let’s ask the obvious question: Why?

The first and major obstacle is that the institution needs to provide complete electronic holdings information in the course of registration. This information is used by Google to position the SFX link in order to indicate when electronic full text is available for a particular reference.

On the other hand, the MPG has no central knowledge base including all electronic full texts available to a specific employee in his local context. The SFX link resolver mashes up holding information from various resources on request, i.e. after a user clicked on a MPG/SFX button. An example is the lookup in the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek to check for content additionally licensed for the particular institute (see documentation, in German). In short: We are not able to deliver the requested holdings information under these circumstances.

But would we register it if we could? At least this would bring the discussion back to the table, but there are some further concerns:

  1. Replicating institutional holding information contradicts one of the basic principles of the OpenURL concept: Generating context sensitive links on request.
  2. Google’s policy of emphasizing electronic holdings discriminates other library services, e.g. print holdings and document delivery services.
  3. The scope of the Google Scholar index is undefined and the interface offers basic retrieval options only. Therefore, we recommend using high-quality resources for information retrieval, e.g. the Web of Science.

Honestly spoken: I’m not too sure that any of the above arguments would prevent us from registering the MPG/SFX server at Google Scholar if our users would ask for it. The truth is: we haven’t received a single request until now. You want to be the first? Submit a comment or post us a note.