LinkOut User Meeting Summary

We held a LinkOut User meeting at MLA for LinkOut libraries May 24, 2004 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm. There were over 40 participants. We welcome any who were unable to attend to read this summary and provide feedback.

LinkOut Update

Kathy Kwan from LinkOut gave an update on LinkOut, and discussed plans for future development.

STATISTICS

• In April 2004, LinkOut resources received 14.9 million hits per month, around 700 thousands hits per work day. This represents a 35% increase from last year.
• As of May 21, there were 1360 LinkOut providers, a 43% increase from last year. 983 of LinkOut providers are libraries. 592 SERHOLD libraries chose to display their print holdings in LinkOut. 39 libraries submit a text file for their print holdings.
• Around 190 full-text providers supply full-text links to 4300 PunbMed journals.
• 77% of PubMed citations from 1999 onwards have full-text links.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• We have improved access to full text and free full text.
  • Filters to search full text and free full text have been simplified to: Full text [sb] and Free full text [sb]
  • In DOCLINE, free full text links display on the Process PubMed Orders page prior to order placement, on the DOCLINE request after the request has been placed, and on the DOCLINE receipt.
  • A Green bar icon on search summary results marks citations with free full text links.
  • A list of journals with free full-text links is now available.
  • NCBI adds links to several federal government publications: Federal Register, FDA Consumer, Alcohol Research and Health, and a number of journals from the National Center for Health Care Statistics.
• The inactivity timeout period for library icons has been increased 8 hours.
• Non SERHOLD libraries can now send print holdings via text file through the Submission Utility.
• There were a number of enhancements in the Submission Utility:
• Edit holdings function
• users can specify month/year in the date range.
• users can enter a sliding scale (limited retention) subscription.
• Display holdings – a text version for export into another document is now available.
• Statistics
• Now provides journal level statistics from March 31, 2004 onwards.
• A text version to export into another program is available.
• LINKOUT-L@UIC users discussion list is live. Details can be found at the LinkOut-L page.

FUTURE PLANS

1. Rearrange the LinkOut display to help user to find links more easily.
2. In Cubby, easier access to their library holdings filter.
3. Encourage providers to send in more full-text links, especially free full-text links.
4. Work with vendors or library systems office for XML file submission for libraries.

• Question: What happens when a library chooses multiple providers?
• Answer: Currently, we point your link according to the priority described in the LinkOut for Libraries FAQ. It is PubMed Central, publisher, aggregator. We plan to allow libraries to choose their preference.
• Question: Can we link to ILLiad?
• Answer: Libraries can link to their local ILL system using either PubMed's document delivery service or Outside Tool. See Document Delivery Service and Outside Tool for details.
• Question: Will there be links to Cochrane Library and JSTOR?
• Answer: We will contact these vendors and see if they wish to enter links. Libraries should encourage them to join if they wish them to participate.
• A user complemented the changes made in statistics.

Tips, Tricks and Enhancements

Deborah Cady, NCBI LinkOut team member, gave a PowerPoint presentation of tips and tricks for managing LinkOut. The PowerPoint presentation is available at Tips and Tricks - 2004.

• Question: Can the Upload Holdings and LinkOut-Serhold methods be combined to add print holdings?
• Answer: No, a library must choose one method or the other. However, different libraries can use these methods and display their combined holdings by using the "holding=mylib,yourlib" parameter in the URL. Please see Tips and Tricks for more information on this.

Getting Started with LinkOut class

Susan Barnes and Denise O'Shea presented this class to 16 users on Wed., May 26th. The PowerPoint presentation with practice exercises is available at Getting Started with LinkOut.

• Question: Can LinkOut-SERHOLD be limited to just print holdings?
• Answer: LinkOut-SERHOLD loads ONLY print holdings (physical formats beginning with "t" code). Other SERHOLD records are not displayed in LinkOut.
• Question: Can the publisher icon be removed or moved in abstract and citation format displays?
• Answer: No. They are there to encourage publishers to participate in LinkOut.

 

Please send questions and comments about LinkOut for Libraries to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.