Connecting Electronic Collections

Citation Linking at the NCSU Libraries

With the increase in the NCSU Libraries' electronic collections, it is critical that library systems guide users to full text when it is available. The Libraries maintains licenses that permit access to content from hundreds of publishers and data providers, but creating stable connections between them is complex. Citation linking is an emerging solution to this problem. Citation linking creates context-sensitive links associated with citations in the Libraries' electronic databases. A researcher using an online index can, for example, link to the full text of an indexed article, provided it is licensed by the library.

Using citation linking is easy. When users click on the "Find Text@NCSU" button in a citation, a new window appears with links to full-text options, if available, as well as to the library catalog. If there is a full-text link, it will take the user directly to the article whenever possible. In some cases, the link will get the user only as far as the "front door" of the journal, and the user can navigate down to the particular issue and page number to find the full text. If full text is not available, a link is provided to pass the search to the library catalog to verify whether the library has print holdings of that particular journal. Finally, if no local copies exist, a Web link passes the citation information to the interlibrary request form.