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| Linking to E-Text: A Short Course in Persistent Links |
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What is a Persistent Link? Why Use Them? Copyright Issues How do I create one? Off Site Access |
What:
Persistent links (also called PURLS, durable links, or stable URLs) allow you to offer a permanent URL to a specific article, book, or (sometimes) a search strategy. Some publishers use DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) to identify specific articles and, though DOIs are structured differently than persistent links, they function in an equivalent way.
Students: When you cite web-based documents (full text journal, magazine, or newspaper articles, or electronic books or government documents), all style methods require that you include the URL for the item. You may also be working with a group on a particular project and it can be very convenient to share the items you found via email with your group.
It is important to note that copyright law applies to those items you post on your personal web page.
Faculty: This also applies to those times you post within your Beachboard course. One way to be sure that you observe copyright is to use the Library's e-Reserves module to post course readings and that way we can manage copyright on your behalf.
How:
1. Many (but not all) of the library's database vendors / producers provide ways for affiliated campus faculty to share these persistent links to electronic text. NOTE: You can also create persistent links to individual records or searches performed in COAST, the library's catalog. (Note: Some databases not providing or allowing persistent linking are: Factiva, Lexis Nexis Academic, and AccuNet / A P Multimedia Archive.)
Here's an example of how one database provider offers this information (Academic Search Elite via EBSCO). Many others display persistent links the same way...within the record information. You can copy the persistent link and share it with your students or with colleagues via email, through your Beachboard course, or on your personal web page. 
2. SFX Menu
Any time you generate an SFX menu (see graphic below) from one of our research databases, the menu will offer the option to Save the Citation and Capture a Persistent Link to the article.
When you click the GO button in the SFX menu, it will open a new window which offers the opportunity to reformat the citation into selected styles. Just highlight and copy the information in the box to save the citation information and capture the persistent link.
NOTE regarding off site access:
You will see examples where the URL (e.g. http://www.jstor.org.mcc1.library.csulb.edu/journals/00218456.html) contains "mcc1.library.csulb.edu". The coding in the URL will proxy the off site user and will prompt them to enter NAME, CAMPUS ID, and LIBRARY PASSWORD. If you share URLs constructed this way with your friends, colleagues, or students in your classes, those persons must have CSULB Library Accounts in order to access these resources from off site.
