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An Overview of Database Linking

NOTE:  THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER BEING UPDATED AND MAY CONTAIN OUTDATED INFORMATION.  A NEW PAGE WITH THESE DIRECTIONS IS AVAILABLE AT  LIBRARY.ILLINOIS.EDU/REX/GUIDES/LINKING/

Creating Persistent URLs for a Bibliography

Database Linking

If you would like to link to an article found in a library database follow the steps on the Database Linking page to make sure your link has the correct information.

Database Linking Page

Why Create Persistent URLS?

In order to create links to existing journal articles you must make sure that your link has a persistent url and will remain constant each time you return.

By going through Online Research Resources (ORR) http://www.library.illinois.edu/orr/ and providing your Illinois Net ID and password, you will automatically be granted access to resources linked from these resources. However, if students do not repeat this process and simply click on a link provided in a bibliography you created, they may not be granted access.

General Information

Some databases will provide a Persistent URL (purl) in the record. If they do, you can simply copy and paste that into your work.

purl

Some resources in the ORR will have a persistent link. For instance, the link for the Journal 'Educational Policy' is http://www.library.illinois.edu/orr/get.php?instid=394294 which is resolving to "Sage Publications" through Highwire. If Highwire changes the URL, the ORR will be updated and if the user has a bookmark to the ORR link they will get to the new URL. This will force them to proxy if they are coming from off campus. However, to be safe, you could add the proxy prefix to the beginning of that url or the DOI. See the next sections.

If There Is No Purl or if the Link Times Out

Adding a Proxy Prefix. If the database does not contain a "purl" then access to the article may time out or you may not be allowed access off campus without redoing the search through the ORR. Here's how you can add a proxy prefix to the url to create the persistent url and off campus access.

Using a Proxy Prefix with the DOI

If you use the DOI of a journal you can add the proxy prefix in front of that as well.

The DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a unique and persistent identifier that can be assigned to digital content, such as online articles. A DOI is paired with an electronic address, or URL, in a central directory. Using a DOI as a way to link to an article will always bring the user to the current location of the article using the URL in the directory. As a result, broken links can be avoided when content gets moved.

The result will be a really long url such as: http://www.library.illinois.edu/proxy/go.php?url=http://dx.doi.org/
10.2307/1351651.

Here's a screen shot of anoter database containing the DOI. You would add the prefix to that DOI and get: http://www.library.illinois.edu/proxy/go.php?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0741713605274627

DOI Image

Other Possibilities

Not every database has a DOI number. You may find that they will have something called a Product ID, a Durable Url, a Suggested Citation link, a Document Url, a Link Pickup, Article URL, Persistent Link. With these you would add the proxy prefix (http://www.library.illinois.edu/proxy/go.php?url=) in front of those links. Follow examples above. Some databases have none of those so one may need to read the documentation.

Remember to Ask a Librarian if you need assistance: http://www.library.illinois.edu/askus/