Linking to Library Resources: Links to E-Resources

If a resource you are trying to link to is not listed, try these steps: 

• see if it uses DOI - then a link can be created using the instructions below
• see if there is a "Stable URL", "Permalink" or "Link" button
• try the citation tool - often a link is part of the citation
• contact the library - we may be able to find a way to create the link 

There can be a number of reasons that a link does not work. The most common one is that the search is not "encoded" - this means that spaces or diacritical marks such as apostrophes cannot be interpreted by the web browser when the URL is clicked. More information on this encoding can be found here: http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm This is most likely to occur in title and subject searches with multiple terms separated by spaces.

Most of the work in constructing permalinks is done in Excel, and there are two utilities that can automate tasks associated with this:

• ASAP Utilities - a collection of over 300 function shortcuts for Excel
• URL Tools Add-In for Excel - this addon for Excel provides functions for encoding and decoding text for construction of URLs.

What is DOI?

"A digital object identifier (DOI) is a serial code used to uniquely identify objects. The DOI system is particularly used for electronic documents such as journal articles. The DOI system began in 2000.

Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name. It may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document remains fixed over the lifetime of the document, whereas its location and other metadata may change. Referring to an online document by its DOI provides more stable linking than simply referring to it by its URL, because if its URL changes, the publisher only needs to update the metadata for the DOI to link to the new URL.

A DOI name differs from standard identifier registries such as the ISBN and ISRC. The purpose of an identifier registry is to manage a given collection of identifiers, whereas the primary purpose of the DOI system is to make a collection of identifiers actionable and interoperable." [from Wikipedia entry]

The logo above links directly to the DOI link resolver. The URL includes the McDaniel proxy information, so off-campus users will have to log in.

Simply having a DOI number does not indicate whether or not the library has access to the journal in question. 

You can paste any DOI number into the DOI Link Resolver and it will take you to the article; however the URL that results is NOT a permalink - you must use the format below to construct a permalink using a DOI number:

A DOI-formatted link using the library proxy (to DOI: 10.1002/cncr.23653) looks like this:

https://hoover2.mcdaniel.edu:2443/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1002/cncr.23653​

To construct proxied DOI links, copy the DOI number and paste it into the DOI generator here: https://lib.hoover.mcdaniel.edu/embed/journals#s-lg-box-wrapper-19039892