Creating Copyright Friendly E-Reading Lists
(by linking to articles in full text databases)

Many full text databases enable you to link to articles by providing what is known as stable URLs. Stable URLs are unique links to articles in databases. Other names that may be used include persistent links or persistent URLs. Unfortunately, each database presents these URLs somewhat differently. They may provide stable URLs in abstracts, in exported reference lists, or in the text of the articles themselves. Wherever you find one, you can copy and paste a stable URL into a web document, and with some tweaking, use it as a link to the text of the article.

Be aware: Not all databases provide full text, and not all of the full text databases provide stable URLs. In addition, some databases can loose the rights to particular journals and articles without warning.

Be especially aware: As provided by the databases, stable URLs alone will not work from outside of the University of Memphis campus. If you do not expect that anyone will want to retrieve articles from off-campus, you can simply copy and paste. If, however, you want your students to be able to activate links using off-campus computers, the proxy server script must precede the stable URL in the link you create.

The proxy script permits only U of M students and faculty to access licensed electronic resources. A box requiring a username and password appears, into which an authorized user inputs his UUID and U of M email password.

Here is the proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?url=

The stable URL follows the equal sign without any break or spacing. Examples are provided for specific databases below.

For your reading list, you may prefer that the lengthy, strange-looking URL be invisible. Hyperlink selected text--the title of an article, for instance--to give the page a cleaner appearance.

While it is probably easiest to create the reading list in Microsoft Word, when you have finished you should use the SAVE AS command to save the file as a Web Page, or in html. The web page can then be loaded into WebCT for students to access or placed on your UMDrive. Web pages are recommended because linked Word documents do not always work consistently when remote access is involved.

Term: Persistent Link

Links are found in the abstracts.

To collect several stable URLs from an EBSCO database, first select citations, and then, go to the folder. Choose the save to disk option, being sure to check the "html links to articles" option. Uncheck the full text options. The saved file includes instructions for using stable URLs.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,uid&db=buh&an=14679025

This takes you to the citation to the article, "The Long Silence" in NZ Marketing Magazine, October 2004, p15; (AN 14679025) in EBSCO's Business Source Premiere. The citation includes a link to the full text article.

Term: DOI

The DOI can be found with the abstract. As provided by Emerald, the DOI is a element to be incorporated into a stable URL rather than a stable URL itself. To construct a URL, prefix the DOI with http://dx.doi.org

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02632779710158868

Term:

Links to articles in the Gale databases are the easiest to retrieve and the most complicated for a user to activate. To retrieve links, open the full text of an article, then copy and paste the URL from browser's address bar. The complication that arises whenever someone attempts to access the article is this: Gale databases require that a cookie be set before full-text access is allowed. The first attempt to retrieve an article will be unsuccessful, but it will set up the cookie. Back up and a second click will succeed.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://web7.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/
487/916/49822195w7/
purl=rc1_EAIM_0_A97390307&dyn=4!xrn_2_0_A97390307?
sw_aep=tel_a_uofmem

Clicking on this link takes you to the .html version of an article in the Expanded Academic database: "Building brand Byron: early-nineteenth-century advertising and the marketing of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" by Nicholas Mason, in Modern Language Quarterly, Dec 2002 v63 i4 p411(30).

Term: article link

Locate the link in the abstract view.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://wilsontxt.hwwilson.com/pdfhtml/01035/1571R/KFX.htm

Clicking on this link takes you to the html version of the article in Library Literature Full Text: Nadel, D. Preiss Is Back with More Graphic Novels. Publishers Weekly v. 250 no. 42 (October 20 2003) p. S18.

Note: Some articles in the H.W.Wilson databases are also available in .pdf; in these cases, stable URLs are provided to the .pdf as well.

Term: Stable URL

Stable URLs are easy to find in JSTOR as they accompany each citation in a results list. In addition, complete articles include backlinks to the CITATION/STABLE URL.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?
sici=0039-3657%28197623%2916%3A4%3C547%3ABPABP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0

Clicking on the link opens the .pdf of the article, "Byron's Prose and Byron's Poetry," by Nina Diakonova, in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 16, No. 4, Nineteenth Century. (Autumn, 1976), pp. 547-561.

Term: URL

Stable URLs can be found in the journal abstracts; they are also located at the end of each article. To export several items, first conduct a search. Mark selected references and save them, then create a file using the printer-friendly option. The URL is part of the exported citation.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/elh/v062/62.1elledge.html

Clicking on this link opens an .html version of the article, "Chasms in Connections: Byron Ending (in) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 1 and 2" by Paul Elledge from ELH 62.1 (1995) 121-148.

BEWARE: the DOI found in the abstracts in PSYCArticles points you back to the APA's own website. As we do not access PSYCArticles from APA directly, but from CSA, these DOI's will NOT link to the proper versions of the articles. If you want to link to the articles in CSA, you will need to select the articles you want linked and create a "short format" list. This list will include abstracts and links to the articles as we are able to retrieve them from CSA. Creating the initial list is easy enough, but transforming it into a page with activated links that you could distribute through WebCT or the UMDrive is difficult.

If you want to use articles from PSYCArticles, contact me (see below) and I will assist you.

Term: URL

Each section of a book in the Safari collection includes a URL for permanent linking.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/0130128538/part01

Clicking on this link opens "The Rubber Meets the Road," part one of The Knowledge Management Toolkit By Amrit Tiwana.

Term: DOI

DOIs are clearly labeled in ScienceDirect abstracts. They can be found above the bibliographic data. The DOI has to be incorporated into a stable URL: prefix the DOI with http://dx.doi.org to create a link.

Example of an activated link with The University of Memphis' proxy server script:

http://ezproxy.memphis.edu/login?
url=http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.asw.2004.06.001

Clicking on the link takes you to the abstract page for "Developing a common scale for the assessment of writing" by Roger Hawkey and Fiona Barker from Assessing Writing, volume 9, issue 2 (2004), pages 122-159.

Social Sciences Full Text: See H.W.Wilson

Subjects covered: anthropology, area studies, communications & mass media, community health & medical care, corrections, criminal justice, criminology, economics, environmental studies, ethics, family studies, gender studies, geography, gerontology, international relations, law, minority studies, planning & public administration, policy sciences, political science, psychiatry, psychology, public welfare, social work, sociology, urban studies

For further information, contact:

Kay Cunningham
Electronic Resources Librarian
McWherter Library
Reference Department
901-678-4345
lkcnnngh@memphis.edu