Deep Links to HOLLIS
Deep linking is the bookmarking and reuse of URLs that point directly to specific sections of a provider's site. Faculty, for example, can deep link to journal articles from their course web sites. Library staff can include deep links for EReserves. The potential uses are limitless. While deep linking has been possible on a limited basis for several years, the Harvard University Library Office for Information Systems (OIS) recently expanded the scope of its deep linking capabilities to include most HOLLIS portal resources.
Scope and limits
Portal deep linking works with any portal resource that is accessible
through EZProxy. Most portal resources that require you to enter your
Harvard ID and University PIN are under EZProxy. In portal resource
listings, the capital letter "I" to the left of a resource name indicates
that access requires Harvard ID and PIN. Deep linking doesn't work with
resources restricted to on-campus use (denoted with a letter C to the left
of the resource name listing) or for resources that do not use EZProxy
(including resources in ProQuest and RLG's Eureka on the Web).
In addition, resources which do not assign persistent URLs to individual articles are ineligible for deep linking. Resources falling within this category include Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe as well as all the OVID resources. Deep linking is not possible with resources that include session identifiers in their URLs. Deep links to such resources will result in expired sessions and, ultimately, failed links. Beta-testing of deep linking revealed that the AccessUN resource is of this last type—and that there may be others. If you are not sure, OIS recommends that you build a link and check it with a browser on a different computer.
What about ProQuest?
Although ProQuest resources are not compatible with the portal's deep
linking function, a separate process for constructing persistent links is
available through ProQuest's Sitebuilder service. To date, the primary use
of this service has been to support EReserves. OIS may expand access to
this service and asks interested staff to contact Ivy Anderson
(ivy_anderson@harvard.edu) or Julie Wetherill (julie_wetherill@harvard.edu).
Building article links
From the HOLLIS portal select a resource and navigate through the
provider's site to locate the article or section of interest. Bookmark or
copy the URL and use as needed. It is advisable to test this type of URL a
day after creation or from a different computer to insure it works.
Adapted from an article in the OIS Newsletter (http://hul.harvard.edu/ois/news/hnl/issues/ 2001/08/#articlesdirect) for August 2001.
Last modified on Thursday, April 18, 2002.