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Persistent Links to Online Articles, Books, and Book Pages in Library Databases.

"Persistent links" (also called "permanent urls" or "durable urls") provide a method for linking directly to specific articles and books in the library's online databases.  You can use these urls in course materials such as reading lists and assignments. These are the urls that students would use in bibliographies in their projects/papers when direct urls are required.


General Instructions

Important Procedures.

  • Use the "permanent" URL to link to items found in Library databases.  In most databases, the url showing in the browser address bar at the top of the screen is NOT a permanent url. The permanent url for an article or book will usually be found elsewhere within the database window. For database-specific instructions on where to find the permanent URL, continue reading below.
  • To make the article accessible from off-campus, you may need to add a special URL in front of the permanent URL. This will allow off-campus DSU students/faculty/staff to login with a Library ID and password to get to the item. Without this change, people connecting from off-campus will get an error screen or a login screen from the database itself (and students do not have logins/passwords that will work on those screens). The database-specific instructions below will provide the special url and show where to place it.
  • Test the links from both on-campus and off-campus to make sure they are working. 
  • Test URLs again at the beginning of new semesters.
  • Links are usually persistent, but NOT necessarily permanent. So keep a complete citation for each article that you use; that way you'll be able to locate the article again if the URL stops working. When using a link, include the complete citation. With a complete citation, others will be able to find the item themselves in the database --even if the "permanent" link fails.

For information services that do not allow persistent links, the database name should be included in the citation so that the article may be found.


ACM Digital Library

The persistent link for an item in ACM Digital Library is called a "DOI (Digital Object Identifer) Bookmark."

  • On the search results screen in ACM Digital Library, click on the title of an article to display the article citation and description

  • The article's persistent link can be found on the line labeled "DOI Bookmark."

  • To create a link that will work off-campus, place the the library's proxy url  

    http://www.ezproxy.dsu.edu:2048/login?url=

       directly in front of the DOI Bookmark URL

  • For example, in the item below, the DOI Bookmark or persistent link is: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/941350.941373

  • To create the persistent url for use in your course materials, add the proxy url to the front and create the following URL to use:

       http://www.ezproxy.dsu.edu:2048/login?url=http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/941350.941373

The figure below shows the location of this article's DOI Bookmark link.


EBRARY

The permanent urls in ebrary are more difficult to find than in most databases.

  • First, login to ebrary by clicking on "sign in" in the upper right corner of the screen. You will login using your Library ID (begins 21578 and is on the front of your DSU ID card) as the username. The password is your last name. 

  • When you have found a book in search results, click on the title to open it to the Table of Contents.

  • On the right side of the screen, just above the Table of Contents, click on "Add to My Bookshelf." This will place the book on your "bookshelf."

  • At the top of the ebrary window, click on the tab labeled "Bookshelf" to display bookshelf items. Here is a bookshelf with one item:

image of Bookshelf screen

  • Find the book you want; right-click on its title; and select "copy link location." Then paste that location as the hyperlink (url) in your document, webpage or course management system.

  • If you highlight text in a book, each of those highlighted sections will also show on the Bookshelf. For a persistent link to that specific part of the book, right-click on "highlight" link and select "copy link location" to then paste the url where you need it.

  • Here is an example of an ebrary persistent link to a book:

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dakotastate/docDetail.action?docID=10235272

  • The persistent link can be used as is; off-campus students who link to the url will need to login with Library ID and password.




EBSCOhost
Instructions

for databases Academic Search Premier, Business Search Premier, and other databases provided by EBSCOhost

The persistent link for an item is an EBSCOhost database is referred to as  the “Persistent link to this record (Permalink).

The figure below shows the location of a persistent link.

Image of EBSCO's persistent link

 


Gale Virtual Reference Library Instructions

Select an item by clicking on its title.

  • Look for the "Bookmark this document" link below the title and source near the top of the screen. 

  • Click on "Bookmark this document" to open a window with the permanent url which will look similar to this one:

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE|CX3405300404&v=2.1&u=sdln_dsu&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

  • The persistent link can be used as is; off-campus students who link to the url will need to login with Library ID and password.



IEEE CS Digital Library Instructions

The persistent link for an item in IEEE CS Digital Library is called a "DOI (Digital Object Identifer) Bookmark."

  • On the search results screen, click on the Abstract icon of an article to display the article citation and description

  • The article's persistent link can be found on the line labeled "DOI Bookmark."

  • To create a link that will work off-campus, place the the library's proxy url  

    http://www.ezproxy.dsu.edu:2048/login?url=

       directly in front of the DOI Bookmark URL

  • For example, in the item below, the DOI Bookmark or persistent link is: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/SERVICES-1.2008.72

  • To create the url for use in your course materials, add the proxy url to the front and create the following URL to use:

http://www.ezproxy.dsu.edu:2048/login?url=http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/SERVICES-1.2008.72

This figure shows the location of this article's DOI bookmark link.

IEEE database screen image

 


 

ProQuest

for databases ABI-INFORM Complete, Proquest Research Library, Proquest Education Periodicals, and other databases provided by Proquest

The persistent link for an item in Proquest is referred to as "Document URL."

  • On the search results screen, click on the title of an article to display the article citation and description

  • The article's persistent link can be found on the line labeled "Document URL" near the bottom of the screen.

  • You can also find the permanent url by clicking on the "Copy Link" icon at the top of the screen. The image below shows an example:

images shows the Copy Link window

  • No changes need to be made for access off-campus; simply copy the entire "Document URL."

 

Safari Tech Books Online

The persistent link for a book or a page in a book may be found at the bottom of each screen and is labeled only "url"

  • To create a link that will work off-campus, place the the library's proxy url  

    http://www.ezproxy.dsu.edu:2048/login?url=

       directly in front of the DOI Bookmark URL

  • For example, if the persistent link is:

    URL http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083238

  • To create the url for use in your course materials, add the proxy url to the front and create the following URL to use. Be careful to use the entire new url when creating the link.

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated 08/28/09