LinkOut User Meeting Summary

A LinkOut User Meeting was held at MLA on May 17, 7:30 - 9:00 AM. The theme of the meeting was "Localizing PubMed." There were approximately 40 participants. We welcome any who were unable to attend to read this summary and provide feedback.

LinkOut Update

Kathy Kwan, LinkOut Coordinator, gave an update on LinkOut, reviewed new features that have been developed over the past year, and discussed plans for future development.

STATISTICS

• As of May 1, 2005, there are 1238 libraries participating in LinkOut. There are a total of 1648 LinkOut participants, including libraries, full-text providers, and non-bibliographic resource providers. This represents a 28% increase in library participation over the past year.
• LinkOut provides full-text links from over 4660 PubMed journals. Full text links are available from 30% of all PubMed citations and from 80% of citations from 1999 to the present. Links to free full-text are available from 7% of all PubMed citations and from 15% of citations from 1999 to the present.
• 99% of PubMed citations have a link to a LinkOut resource. LinkOut resources include electronic full-text, print holdings records, and links to other electronic resources. 97% of PubMed citations have a link to library holdings.
• over the past year, LinkOut received approximately 850,000 hits per business day. The busiest month was March 2005, when LinkOut received 21.5 million hits.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

• The LinkOut display has been improved.
• Links are now grouped in the following order: Full-Text Sources, Other Literature Sources, i.e. commentaries or discussions of the article, author information, Libraries, and other resources, i.e. links to medical information or related records in other databases.
• Link attributes are represented by icons. Icons designate free full-text and links to the full-text at the publisher's site.
• Libraries with print or electronic access to the article are listed alphabetically, and can be viewed by initial letter of the library name. The entire list of libraries with access to the article can be viewed by clicking the "All" link under Libraries.


• _fft: Library icons can be automatically applied to citations with links to free full-text.
• To automatically apply library icons to citations with links to free full-text, append _fft to your LinkOut user name in your library's special URL. For example:

  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=medlib_fft Where medlib is the library's LinkOut user name.

• When using _fft, clicks on the library icons will be included in the library statistics.
• Using _fft will not cause free full-text journals to appear in the library's LinkOut holdings
• _fft is recommended to add library icons to free full-text journals to which the library does not subscribe. If the library subscribes to a journal, it should be entered in the Submission Utility.


• Enhancement to _fft: _fft_ndi. Appending _fft_ndi to the library's LinkOut User Name in the library's special URL will apply the library icon to all citations with free full text links, and will omit all default icons, including the PubMed Central icon, from PubMed's Abstract and Citation displays.
• This function should be used with care! Omitting the default icons may deprive users of access to materials if holdings are not updated. Additionally, users my deprive others of access to materials by sharing the library's special URL.
• Links to all providers will always be available in the LinkOut display.


• Clear options set by using a special URL without waiting for inactivity timeout.
• Appending __reset (two underscores) to the basic PubMed URL will clear all options that have been set using special URLS.

  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=__reset



• Activate icons through direct links to Clinical Queries, Single Citation Matcher, and the Entrez Cross-Database Search (GQuery).
• To activate library icons through direct links to these services, use the following:

  Clinical Queries: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/clinicalx.cgi?holding=medlib
  Single Citation Mathcher: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/scm.cgi?holding=medlib
  GQuery: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gquery/gquery.fcgi?holding=medlib
  Where "medlib" is the library's LinkOut username

• For more information about using Special URL, see Localizing PubMed for Your Users


• Display Library Holdings as Filter Tabs
• LinkOut Filters in My NCBI can be used to activate LinkOut icons and to display library holdings as a filter tab in PubMed search results. My NCBI can use persistent cookies to maintain library icon and filter selections until the user changes the settings or signs out of My NCBI. Persistent cookies will not time out due to inactivity.
• A demonstration of the use of Filter Tabs is included in Kathy Kwan's MLA 2005 Presentation.

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: APRIL 2005

• A Request for Information was distributed in April 2005. The RFI addressed interest in implementing Library LinkOut in NLM Catalog and LinkOut training. 80 responses were received.
• Library LinkOut for NLM Catalog: 1/3 of respondents were interested. Both uploading files and using a Submission Utility style function were desired as a means of uploading holdings. As interest was present but not high, implementation of Library LinkOut in NLM Catalog will be considered lower priority for development.
• LinkOut training: Over 95% of respondents were interested in LinkOut training. The RFI identified a need for advanced training, and a need for both in person and remote training opportunities.
• Please send your input to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

THE COMING YEAR

• LinkOut Home Page Redesign will help all provider groups (libraries, full-text providers, and other resource providers) find information more effectively. Please send suggestions regarding the home page to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
• Submission Utility Redesign will provide additional functions, include Outside Tool and Document Delivery Service (DDS) administration, and lay the path for Library LinkOut in NLM Catalog. Please send any ideas for changes in the Submission Utility to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
• Announcements regarding these redesigns will be posted to the Library LinkOut listserv.

Localizing PubMed

LINKING OUT IN WINNIPEG

The LinkOut Team invited Tania Gottschalk, WRHA Librarian at the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library, University of Manitoba, to speak to the user meeting about the University of Manitoba's experience with using several LinkOut functions to "localize" PubMed. Ms. Gottschalk kindly accepted the invitation but found she was unable to attend. Ms. Gottschalk's presentation was presented by Tansy Szeliga, LinkOut Liaison for Libraries. Ms. Gottschalk's presentation is available at Linking Out in Winnipeg.

MORE ABOUT LOCALIZING PUBMED

Tansy Szeliga provided a short additional example of using linking functions to link library users to local resources from PubMed. The PowerPoint presentation is available at Localizing PubMed Short Presentation.

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