Linking to Library Resources

Linking to our subscription (i.e, limited access) databases, online reference sources, and electronic journals involves some special considerations that you should know about. This is the case whether you are using Blackboard or a course website.

A portion of the URLs for these resources in InfoTree and ALICE makes off-campus access possible.

This is fine if you go to those sources directly through InfoTree, but what about linking to them from your own pages? In order for your students (or yourself) to get the same kind of off-campus access, you will need to copy a given resource's URL from its full record in InfoTree.

InfoTree Records

Here's how to do this, using an InfoTree record as an example:

Simply copy the URL and paste it into your Blackboard page or course web page. As long as it contains the word redirect followed by an ID number, everything should work correctly for both on- and off-campus users.

Particularly on subscription (limited access) databases, you should not go to the database itself and try to copy the URL you find there. Many of these databases change their URL between their "starting point" and "ending point." Another thing: URLs do change from time to time; if you link through InfoTree's records as described above, you should always have the current URL.

ALICE Records

To connect to any individual record in ALICE, it works best to use the "Persistent link to this record" which is shown below:

Just click on the phrase "Persistent link to this record" and use the URL for the new page that appears.

Admittedly, this is one click removed from the actual link to the journal itself, but as the example above shows, some journals are available from multiple sources, often with different date ranges from one source to another. All of the links should work for both on- and off-campus users.

Individual Journal Articles

Creating links to specific journal articles that will work for for both on- and off-campus users is trickier. The reason for this is that our URLs for limited-access journals (and other online resources, for that matter) contain two elements:

1. The first part, up through the .pl? (see example below) runs a script that identifies the IP address of the computer you are using. If the computer is on-campus, the connection goes through right away. If your computer is off-campus, you will see a page that asks you to login before you can use the resource.
2. The second part is the actual URL of the journal (or other resource).

The procedure illustrated and described below should work for most limited-access journal articles. If you have difficulties making journal article links work correctly, don't hesitate to Ask a librarian.

For this example, let's assume you want to link to an article from the American Historical Review that is available through JSTOR.

1. Hold your mouse over, but do not click on, the link to the JSTOR version of this journal.
2. Note the URL that shows up at the bottom of the browser window. It contains the two elements described above. In order to "capture" this URL, right-click on the link which your mouse is hovering over. In this example, the complete link is: http://www.library.ohiou.edu/cgi-bin/redir_jstor.pl?http://www.jstor.org/journals/00028762.html.
   • Among the choices that pop up should be one that allows you to copy the link. Do so, then paste it into a temporary working file for later use.
   • Now, do a normal left-click on the link and navigate to the particular article you wish to link to.

For more information, see OhioLINK's page on How to Bookmark an E-Journal Article.