Assistance for Linking to FSU’s Electronic Resources

This web page gives instructions on how to create links to FSU's resources.  Using these instructions will result in links which are valid at the time the link is added, rather than a bad link which points to a specific session within a database rather than the resource.

How to avoid bad links

How to make a permanent link to the FSU catalog

How to make a permanent link to a Subject Heading in the FSU catalog

How to copy and paste a link to an electronic resource

How to create an electronic resource link that is updated automatically

How to add a permanent link to the FSU catalog:

1. Locate the item you want in the FSU catalog.
2. Go to the full record for the item (you get here by clicking on the name of the item from search results).
3. Click the link to go to the “permalink” page. The permalink button is along the top of the item’s record. It looks like this:
   
4. Cut and paste the URL of the permalink page, and use this as your link.
   

How to copy and paste a link to an electronic resource:

1. Go to the Databases A-Z list on www.lib.fsu.edu or to the A-Z Resource list in LibGuides
2. Hold your mouse over the link
   Look along the bottom edge of your web browser. The URL you see there is the link to the resource.
3. Right click the link
4. A menu will open where your mouse is. Scroll down and choose “Copy Link Location”.
5. Go to LibGuides and paste in the link
6. Use the same right click method to cut and paste persistent URLs (containing /get/ in the URL) from the Databases A-Z LibGuide at http://guides.lib.fsu.edu/DatabasesAZ
   

 

How to create a link that is updated automatically:

1. The Databases A-Z list on the FSU Libraries’ web page pulls from a database. URLs beginning with http://www.lib.fsu.edu/get/ will go into the Databases A-Z list and retrieve the current URL. A LibGuide called Databases A-Z contains the /get/ URLs for current FSU databases.
   These instructions tell you how to automatically import a link from the Databases A-Z LibGuide to your LibGuide.
2. Your box type has to be “Web Links” or “Links and Lists”.
   
3. At the bottom of the box, click the link to “Add New Link”.
4. Choose the tab to “Reuse Existing Link”.
5. In the menu next to “Guide”, scroll down to the link to “Databases A-Z”.
6. In the slot next to “Link Title”, type the first few letters of the database name. Database names beginning with those letters will appear.
7. Click on the name of the database you want, when it comes up.
8. There is an optional box to copy, rather than link to, the resource you are adding.
   If you link to the original item in the Databases A-Z LibGuide, then when the original item is deleted, your link will disappear. An advantage to this might be that you link will disappear automatically when FSU cancels a subscription to a resource.
   If you copy the link, then the link you create in your LibGuide will be independent of other links in the system.

How to avoid bad links

You will probably build your LibGuides Research Guides, Blackboard sites, and web pages at work, in your office, and rarely access them from home.

Clicking a link to a database while you are at work, or on campus, and the link works. Will it work for an FSU student who clicks the link from a computer in an apartment complex? … maybe

The number one issue with linking to FSU’s electronic resources is:

A LINK TO AN ELECTRONIC RESOURCE MAY WORK DIFFERENTLY WHEN CLICKED FROM HOME VS FROM FSU!

This is because the proxy login works differently from off campus.

When you use a computer from on campus, the database vendor can detect where you are physically, recognize that you are at FSU, and grant you access to the database.

 

If you feel adventurous, try clicking the link to one of FSU’s databases. Now compare the URL of the link you clicked (which shows in the bottom edge of the screen when you hold the mouse over the link) with the URL of the place you went to when you clicked the link. Are they different?

If so, then likely only one will work from off campus.

When a link is working correctly for an FSU student at home, the student will get FSU’s proxy login screen, which looks like this:

 

How to make a permanent link to a Subject Heading in the FSU catalog

The FSU library online catalog does not have a button to get to a link to cut and paste to make a permanent link a subject heading. In order to link to a specific subject heading, use this work-around:

1.  In the FSU online catalog, search the subject heading you wish to use.

2.  In search results, click to the record for a book with your subject heading.

3.  From the record for that book, click to the hotlink for the subject heading on that book.

4.  Click the button labeled "RSS" in the top right corner of results.

5.  Cut and paste the URL of this RSS feed.