OpenURL Linking: the Academic Library Experience

John McDonaldAcquisitions LibrarianCharleston Conference

November 6, 2003

SFX at Caltech

1. Why did Caltech choose SFX?

2. What is enabled at Caltech?

3. How does it work?

4. What were the issues surrounding release of SFX to the campus?

5. How do our users like it?

6. How hard is it to maintain?

7. Other frequently asked questions...

Why SFX?Reference Linking:  Allows researchers to seamlessly transition from one information resource to another, easily linking them to full-text articles, to follow citations, or to find more information about the author, resource, or topic.

Context Sensitivity: Links that are presented to the user are determined by the journal and are specific to an institution's collections.

Local Control: Library staff determine the best choices to present to the user.

SFX'd Resources at Caltech

SFX Sources

Now: All major bibliographic databases

Not yet: OPAC (Innopac)  

SFX TargetsFulltext Journal Publishers: All major

publishers! Over 80 publishers and a total of 4105 journals (over 96% of our serial collection)

Other Bibliographic Resources:  ILLIAD Document Delivery System, Local OPAC (Innovative), Feedback Form, Web of Science, PubMed

SFX in ACTION

Here are a few examples of how SFX works, in real life....Let's start in the Web of Science, do some searching, get some articles, see what our other options are...

SFX in ACTION

Here’s another example…What goes well with beer? Let’s search Grilling and Beef….

SFX Release Issues

When to release?  We wanted to wait to release until after we had a "critical mass" of Sources and Targets.  This would make the system seem like an overwhelming improvement and not resource-specific.  CLS thought it was essential to have Web of Science & OVID as Sources and it was important, though not essential, to have Innopac as a Source. 

User Education Issues:  Caltech decided to keep the "branded" SFX button and continue to call the resource SFX.  The Library User Education Team was consulted about education issues and their conclusion was to incorporate SFX instruction into already existing library instruction sessions.  An Executive Summary was produced and paired with an SFX FAQ to inform and instruct our community.

Response: Immediate! Betsy enabled at 9:01 AM on Monday and we had an email by the next morning – a faculty request for a new subscription!  Then a bug report, then a love letter, more love letters, then more subscription requests...But mostly people just started USING it and have NEVER LOOKED BACK...

Working with SFX: The FAQs of Life

1. How hard is it to get the system up and running?

2. What do you still do after the system is functional?

3. How long does it take and how many staff are

involved?

4. How hard is it and what skills does it take?

5. How do users like it and what do the use statistics

look like?

Not very hard at all. Organizing your own collections data is the most time consuming aspect of the setup. Regular monthly updates, weekly knowledgebase (content data) updates, and daily troubleshooting. Frequent updates due to your changing library subscriptions.At Caltech, we only have two staff members who are regularly involved in updating the database. It’s not brain surgery – most librarians and programmers can get it up, running, and regularly maintained.Our users love it – They have difficulty remembering the “dark days” of finding fulltext by their wits and wiles.

How do your library users feel?

Confused Angry Afraid Frustrated

The Various States of Library Research

Clueless

Interested Astonished Happy Ecstatic

Your patron on…

Your patron now…