Wishful thinking: If Aleph could send an article OpenURL… Ruti Suhami College of Management Rishon Le-Zion, Israel 2009IGeLU

Agenda Managing reading lists with Aleph – Why? An Article OpenURL from Aleph – What for? Current situation – How can we change it? Other applications

Why manage course reading items with Aleph? (6 good reasons) 1. The GUI serves as an internal database with powerful management capabilities 2. Records can be shared across courses, across years and across libraries – saves duplication 3. The Course Reading module offers an easy linking and un-linking of records

Why manage course reading items with Aleph? (6 good reasons) 4. Aleph’s being an ILS – One workflow for reading items that require acquisition/ILL 5. Search options on the OPAC can be accommodated to our needs 6. Offers students the same familiar interface as the library’s catalog

E-reading lists and Copyright Easy access to course reading list materials Two considerations Commitment to keeping copyright Reading list citation on Aleph + A link to the library’s full text article

Current way of linking Different ways for creating a link from Aleph to the full text article: Link to publisher’s website Persistent links offered by database vendors Link to SFX menu All of these require laborious manual work An automated solution is needed

The need for an article OpenURL An article citation on Aleph Library’s copyrighted full text article A Link Resolver Can Aleph send an article OpenURL to SFX?

Unfortunately not… Currently* Aleph can not create article-level OpenURL The infrastructure in Aleph exists, but… In order to support an article OpenURL, it will need some changes * Up to Aleph version 20

Current infrastructure There is a section in Aleph OpenURL scheme regarding article details This section is left empty for future use - Currently it puts nothing there

What’s needed to change it? Decision on where to take the article information from Library of Congress: MARC field 773 Ex-Libris willingness to make the required adjustments Additional Aleph/SFX users asking for it

Other applications Added value to using Aleph platform for creating local bibliographic databases For example: RambiRambi - an Index of articles on Jewish Studies Produced by the Israeli National Library * * *

field 773 If we had an OpenURL, then the user could click an SFX button… and get the following SFX menu

Summary The use of Aleph for handling course materials calls for context sensitive linking An OpenURL is the natural solution The infrastructure is already there, but needs extra steps taken by Ex Libris An article OpenURL from Aleph would add value to additional applications

Thank you Your comments are welcome Contact: 2009IGeLU