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    4.4 - Library Links Settings

    Users who have access to electronic resources through their library subscriptions can configure their ADS preferences so that the appropriate links to the fulltext will be provided when viewing a record in the ADS. If your library provides online linking services, all you have to do is tell the ADS what library you are a member of by going to the your account page and clicking on "Library Links settings." The ADS does its best in trying to find the most appropriate library link server available to you automatically, but in general it is up to you to review the settings and make any modifications as necessary. If you need to modify your settings, you should first see if your institute's library is listed in the pull-down menu at the bottom of the form. If you find an entry for your institute, select it and click on the "Save" button. If not, and if you know what your library's OpenURL server is, you can fill the information in the appropriate input fields, or (even better!) you can ask the person responsible for the electronic resources at your library to provide the relevant information to the ADS so we can include it in our system (see below for more information on this).

    Once you have saved your Library server information, you can go back and search the ADS as usual. Whenever viewing a record for a paper which has fulltext available online, you will notice that a new link with your library's icon on it will appear. Following the link will take you to your library's link resolver, which will give you a list of options available to you for obtaining the fulltext. Please note that the availability of a library link in the ADS does not necessarily mean that the fulltext paper will be available to you, as this determination is done by your library link server. In general, however, the library server will have the most relevant and complete information about a document's availability to you as a patron.



    4.4.1 - Library Link Server Detection and Customization

    This section provides some background and technical details about the implementation of the library links in the ADS, and may be of interest to librarians and other information providers. The creation of Library Links in the ADS makes use of the OpenURL standard. OpenURL is a technology designed to support mediated linking from information resources providers to fulltext content via library services. By knowing a user's particular OpenURL settings, an information provider (in this case the ADS) can create well-defined links to the user's OpenURL server, which then in turn directs the user to the fulltext contents that his or her library subscribes to. More information on OpenURL is available on Wikipedia. The ADS supports both the OpenURL 0.1 and 1.0 specifications.

    Users are encouraged to take advantage of this technology by customizing their preferences to let the ADS know that they have access to an OpenURL server so that the appropriate links can be created to the user's OpenURL resolver. OpenURL parameters can be specified using the ADS's Library Links settings page. After a user specifies his or her server in this page, the ADS will remember them during future interactions with our system (as long as cookies are enabled in the user's browser).

    We realize that individual users may not know what the correct server settings for their OpenURL server may be. To facilitate the task of setting these parameters, the ADS tries to automatically detect the user's OpenURL server based on the user's IP address by checking OCLC's OpenURL Resolver Registry. This will work if the user's institution's OpenURL server and IP address ranges have been properly registered with OCLC, something that we encourage librarians to do. In addition to this approach, the ADS maintains a list of library OpenURL servers that users can select from in the Library Links settings page. If you are a librarian and would like to have your institute's OpenURL server listed in the ADS's menu, please send us the location of the OpenURL server, icon, and the text to be displayed in the menu and we will add it to our settings. Having your institute listed in the ADS page is useful even if your IP addresses are registered with OCLC since it allows users to select the proper entry when working from home or on travel. Please note that we do not maintain a list of IP addresses for your institution, but rather rely on OCLC's registry for automated server detection.

    We also allow libraries to create links to the ADS OpenURL settings page so that when their patrons follow these links, they will automatically find the proper parameters pre-filled in, and all the user will need to do is simply submit the page we create for him or her. The syntax for creating such a link is: 

        http://ads.grangenet.net/cgi-bin/pref_set?4&OpenURL=OURL&Icon=ICON
    where you should replace OURL and ICON with the base URL of your server and the icon to be displayed. If you have given us the server information for your institution so that it appears in the menu of known OpenURL servers, then all you have to specify in your link is the server's URL. For instance, this link, when followed, will set your OpenURL server to the OCLC OpenURL gateway: 

        http://ads.grangenet.net/cgi-bin/pref_set?4&OpenURL=http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/gateway
    Our OpenURL setting procedure also allows an automatic redirect after updating these settings. This allows libraries to create links to our website that automatically set the OpenURL parameters and then display an alternative page. To enable this feature, simply modify the URL specified above by appending &Redirect=FinalURL to it. For example, the following link, when followed, will set your OpenURL server to the OCLC OpenURL gateway and then redirect you to the ADS's homepage: 

        http://ads.grangenet.net/cgi-bin/pref_set?4&OpenURL=http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/gateway&Redirect=http://ads.harvard.edu
    For more information on this or to submit your OpenURL server settings, please send email to ads@cfa.harvard.edu



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