The Library subscribes to over 300 databases that contain full text content (journal articles, encyclopedias, ebooks) on the web from over 30,000 separate journals, newspaper and magazine articles, legal and government documents, online reference books and textbooks. Blackboard and eCollege both support linking directly to this web content.

To point students and colleagues directly to online content or to sample searches in appropriate databases you will generally need to pay attention to three things:

• a stable URL, that is one that will point to the same resource every time.
  Not all of our content is available full text via a stable url. Some databases (such as the Lexis Nexis family of databases) do not yet support direct links to their full text content. Other databases are "indexing" databases without full text content. However many of the major database publishers have added this feature to their content.
• a URL that allows off campus users to login to a proprietary resource through the Library.
  The URL to purchased resources need to be in the rewrite format.
• a link from a course management system such as Blackboard or eCollege must open in a new window and not inside the course management system's frame.

General procedure for finding a stable URL

1. Go to the web site you want to use.
2. First examine the URL as displayed in the address bar for the words: session, session id, id,jscript or javascript, or for single quotes. These items indicate the URL is probably not stable.
   • If the URL doesn't have these items copy it from the address bar, open a new browser window, and paste it into the address bar to try it. If it works, use it, but test it again in 24 hours. Some sites have URLs that are stable only for a short time period.
   • If the URL has those items examine the page for a link labeled "stable URL" or permanent link.
3. If you find a link labeled "stable" that is good. Use it but be sure it includes what we call the rewrite wrapper if it is not a free resource so off-campus users will be able to login to access the web site. You can usually opposite click on the link and select "copy shortcut" to get the URL to insert in your document or web page.
4. Next try going back a page and examining the link used to reach the target page. Examine that connecting link (the one used to reach your target page) for the same items as mentioned above by putting the cursor over the link and viewing the URL of the link in the Status bar. The Status bar is typically located at the bottom left of your IE browser window.
• If the URL doesn't have these items copy it from the address bar, open a new browser window, and paste it into the address bar to try it. If it works, use it, but test it again in 24 hours. Some sites have URLs that are stable only for a short time period.
• If the URL has those items you might have to link to a page even further from your target web page and instruct users how to find the resource from there.

Hint

Typically, stable or not, the URLs will be looooooong. Some course software has a limit on the length of a link you can insert. When you do insert it, the course software will cut off the end of the URL making it unusable. There is a public utility on the web you can use to create a short version of those long complicated URLs called TinyURL. Take your long URL convert it to a TinyURL and insert the TinyURL version in your courseware. It will work just as well. Go to their site or use the box below.

Why link? Why not place a copy of the article online?

In general there is no reason you could not place a copy online. In fact this might be necessary for articles we do not have full text online. You may generally do this as long as the following apply:

1. Your electronic copy of a copyrighted article is a legally purchased copy or a digitized version of a legally purchased copy and the copyright holder has not specifically barred the practice. That is, no downloads from a less considerate users' web site or a taped television interview and no copies from sites that say 'no copies without permission'.
2. You place the article in a protected area such as a Blackboard course space, or in the Library online reserves, but not on your personal web page.
3. You remove the copy of the article from online at least by the end of the semester.

Copyright is an extremely complicated subject so here is a handout for faculty from the Association of Research Libraries that outlines some best practices related to using materials in a classroom and online.  Also the Auraria Library librarians have created a set of web pages that focus on the issues surrounding copyright and fair use in higher education.  They are located at http://library.auraria.edu/guides/subject/copyright/copyright.html.  There are many credible web sites out there from librarians/lawyers that are linked from these pages.

Whether or not you include the article might also depend on how much 'discovery' you'd like your students to experience while taking your course. You may wish to simply provide a copy of an article for the sake of time and efficiency or you might want to point your students in the general direction of the resources and start them exploring. An example might be a link to a fairly complicated search in Skyline that will display a list of books they might find useful.

Creating stable links to various Library resources

Creating stable links to Skyline searches

A canned search is a functional link that launches a particular search in the online catalog, Skyline. Links for canned searches are created from the URL obtained from the page generated.

1. Beginning from the Skyline Advanced Search page (http://132.194.32.30/search/X) choose the kind of search you would like to make from the tabs (keyword, author, etc) and execute the search.
2. Highlight the URL in the Internet Explorer "Address:" box or the Netscape/Firefox "Location:" box and copy it (ctrl-C).
3. Paste (ctrl-V) the URL into the external links section of Blackboard or use it as a link in any html-based page such as a readings list or a webliography in Blackboard or eCollege.

Sample Skyline links:

• Canned search on an author name: Jean Piaget
• Canned search on a subject heading: Astronomy, Ancient
• Canned keyword search: communication encyclopedias

Creating stable links to individual Skyline records

This is particularly useful if you would like to point students to the online content of a specific journal or ebook. Many faculty ask their students to search a specific journal to judge their analysis of a known set of data or familiarize them with a particularly useful journal in their field. This linking to a single record can be done with the technique above if you can do a tight enough search to isolate the one record but usually results in a very long URL. Because each of our records has an individual permanent record number you can however use that to link to the record.

1. Search Skyline for the record you want
2. Right (or opposite) click on the link in the record that says "Permanent link for this Skyline record" and copy the link by choosing "copy shortcut" in IE or "copy link location" in Netscape /Firefox
3. Use this link into your web pages or course management system.

Sample Skyline record links:

• A professional journal: Current Directions in Psychological Science
• An ebook: Building on the promise of diversity [electronic resource] : how we can move to the next level in our workplaces, our communities, and our society / R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. New York : AMACOM/ American Management Association, c2006.
• A reference book: Encyclopedia of major marketing campaigns. Volume 2 [electronic resource] / Thomas Riggs, editor. Detroit, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2007.

Creating stable links to course reserves pages

The course reserve system at Auraria Library is a program called Docutek. It provides both electronic and physical reserves for any of the courses taught by the faculty of our three Auraria institutions. There is a search mechanism for students to find the reserves for their course by the professors last name, by the department, and by words or numbers in the course description. Though useful, it is actually quite a lot of 'clicking' and there is potential for confusion. You can link directly to the list of resources for your course.

1. Work your way to the course reserve page you wish to link to.
2. Highlight the URL in the Internet Explorer "Address:" box or the Netscape/Firefox "Location:" box and copy it (ctrl-C).
3. Paste (ctrl-V) the URL into the external links section of Blackboard or use it as a link in any html-based page such as a readings list or a webliography in Blackboard or eCollege.

Sample Course Reserves links:

• ereserves PDFs for MSCD BIO 1080
• traditional reserves for UCD MUS 5000
• combined resources for UCD CHEM 2031

Creating stable links to the article databases and indexes page searches

The articles databases and indexes page (adi) is the search interface for our database of databases. You can search it by words in the database title and descriptors. You can look at databases that focus on certain topics by choosing from a long list of topics that the Library supports across the three institutions. Or you can choose a database from an alphabetic list if you know it's name. These are straight-forward searches. You may obtain stable links to a list of databases by using the URL or web address you get when you retrieve the search.

1. Make the search in the adi page that creates the list you want.
2. Highlight the URL in the Internet Explorer "Address:" box or the Netscape/Firefox "Location:" box and copy it (ctrl-C).
3. Paste (ctrl-V) the URL into the external links section of Blackboard or use it as a link in any html-based page such as a readings list or a webliography in Blackboard or eCollege.

Sample links to adi searches:

• The databases and web sites listed under the Open Access subject heading
• Word searches on anthropology, archeol, and Google
• Databases that begin with O

Creating stable links to full-text articles

Some of the library's databases, including Project Muse allow you to create stable links to an article by using the URL or web address you get when you retrieve the article, much like creating the links to Skyline searches or to the .

In other databases, including JSTOR and ECO, the URLs contain session information that will expire after period of time and therefore cannot be used to create stable links. These databases provide methods for generating stable URLs, which can then be used for creating article-level links. Details for creating links to articles in some of these databases follow.

Some major full-text databases, Lexis Nexis group of databases and Factiva, do not yet provide a reliable means for generating stable URLs. You might have to link to a search page that searches a single journal or simply link to the database and provide a definitive set of words to search on.

Off campus access to our resources (or the importance of the rewrite wrapper)

The Library uses a special system that refers all users through a validation scheme to limit use of our proprietary materials to our students, faculty and staff. It is called a rewrite proxy. To make any of the links work for students who are not accessing the course management system or your web pages from campus affiliated computers the link you give them must include what is known as a rewrite wrapper. Our rewrite wrapper is: 0- ... .skyline.cudenver.edu   This must be present in the links to any resource that is not freely available on the internet so that if a student is not set up with a VPN at home they will be able to reach the resource. Many of the databases will show it in their stable URLs but some such as JSTOR do not.

For additional assistance creating links to articles in any database, contact distance support. Note that stable URLs that contain the rewrite proxy, like ordinary remote access to library resources, will require a user to login with their name and student id number when prompted.

JSTOR (list of collections)

All articles from JSTOR provide full text. Stable URLs, which differ from the URLs that display when you are viewing an article, are available for all articles. They are provided on search results screens, tables of contents screens, and citation screens. Or, you can get a stable URL when you are viewing an article by following the steps below.

1. View any page of the full text of the desired article.
2. Click on the Article information link near the top or the bottom of the page.
3. Select the stable URL under the article citation and copy it.
4. Paste it somewhere where it is editable such as the address box of your browser or a text email and insert the rewrite wrapper around the first part of the URL.
5. Copy the modified link and use it in your web pages

Sample link to JSTOR article:

• Lee, Doris M. "The Sources and Nature of Statistical Information in Special Fields of Statistics: The Statistics of Education." Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (General), vol. 117 (1954): 348-360.
• This link with the rewrite wrapper:
  http://0-links.jstor.org.skyline.cudenver.edu/sici?sici=0035-9238(1954)117%3A3<348%3ATSANOS>2.0.CO;2-E
• And without it:
  http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0035-9238(1954)117%3A3<348%3ATSANOS>2.0.CO;2-E

WorldCat & ECO / OCLC databases (list of databases with descriptions)

Full text is available for a small percentage of the citations retrieved from OCLC databases. These include Contemporary Women's Issues, ECO and one of our versions of Medline. Note that these instructions will work only if you are viewing a page that has full text.

• View any page of the full text of the desired article.
• Click Link pickup icon in the upper right portion of the screen.
• Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."
• Paste the URL into your web pages You will notice that the rewrite wrapper is included in the URL.

Sample link to an ECO article:

• Women, Land Rights and the Environment: The Kenyan experience. Kameri-Mbote, Patricia. Development, v.49, n.3, (2006), p.43.

Ebsco database group (list of databases with descriptions)

Ebsco databases have the persistent links clearly displayed on the citation page for the article but they are usually 'below the fold' and you must scroll down a bit to see them.

1. View the citation page of any full text article you are targeting.
2. If you are in the PDF of an article click on the Citation link in the upper right portion of the window to reach the citation page.
3. Scroll down to look for the label on the left side that says Persistent link to this record:
4. This is the link to copy and use in your web pages.

Sample link to a search:

• search for the topic of gaming in a specific journal

Sample link to an article:

• Gaming Setups Common in Libraries. Library Technology Reports; Sep/Oct2006, Vol. 42 Issue 5, p24-30, 7p

Thomson Gale / Infotrac database group (list of databases with descriptions)

One File's power search provides full text articles for most of its contents. All articles have stable URLs. These URLs are so long, however, that it will be difficult to create links with them unless you copy and paste the URL's rather than transcribing them. In fact, for any database, it is a good idea to copy and paste URLs to avoid typographical errors. Follow these steps below.

1. View any page of the full text of the desired article or the search results page.
2. Click on the InfoMark link in the upper left of the screen.
3. You will see a screen with the whole URL listed and a utility to put the bookmark it (Firefox) or make it a favorite IE) or email it. Do not use the Email the InfoMark URL to yourself or others. utility however. The rewrite wrapper is removed in the emailed version and becomes useless when you are off campus and should not be used. You can however copy the stable URL into an email and send it.

Sample links:

• search on the subject heading ice cream parlors
• Ice cream evoked headaches (ICE-H) study: randomized trial of accelerated versus cautious ice cream eating regimen. (Evidence that really matters). Maya Kaczorowski and Janusz Kaczorowski. British Medical Journal 325.7378 (Dec 21, 2002): p1445(2). (851 words)

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) (list of databases with descriptions)

Finding the stables links in these databases is more complicated but they are there. At the moment there is no way to link to a search. However, CSA supports alerts.

1. Get to the full record (not the full text) for the article
2. Click on save, print, email
3. Click on print preview
4. What would normally be emailed to you will open in a new window
5. At the very bottom, ***the very last entry*** labeled "FL: Full-Text Link" is the full text link which is the one you want to copy and use, or copy and email. Do not use the CSA program to email the link as it will not include the rewrite wrapper in what you receive, and no one will be able to use it from off campus without adding the wrapper (this does not apply to people using the UCDHSC virtual private network because they are "on campus")

Sample link:

• Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological bulletin, 133(1), 65-94. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from PsycARTICLES database.
  

Troubleshooting your links