Re: Linking from Infotrac to Webpac

[Bob Duncan <duncanr at mail dot lafayette dot edu>]

At 03:21 PM 10/29/2004 +0000, Janet Fine wrote:
> We are attempting to create a link from Infotrak (Thompson/Gale) to our 
> catalog.  This link would be from the citation in Infotrak to the bib 
> record in our catalog for periodicals that the library owns.  The link 
> would be via the ISSN number.  I have the instrctions from from Infotrak, 
> and the instructions say to enter the "base URL to your OpenURL server." I 
> called Thompson/Gale about this URL and they said thatthe URL should be 
> supplied by III.  When I spoke with III, they said that to make this link 
> work we would most likely have to purchase their OpenURL resolver product, 
> WebBridge.
> What I don't understand is that Baker and Taylor's Title Source II allows 
> us to link back to our catalog to determine if an item is in our collection.
>
> Aren't both Infotrack and Title Source II using the same functionality to 
> link back to our catalog? Most likely B&T is providing the functionality 
> as part of their service--I knew I loved those cats for a reason!  Any 
> help would be most appreciated and shared with the Group.


I think the main problem here is that the various tech support folks appear 
to be answering only the questions asked (which isn't always a good 
thing).  If you want to link to a bib record (which isn't exactly the same 
thing as searching the WebOPAC) then you might need to use Infotrac's 
OpenURL capabilities, in which case you do indeed need an OpenURL resolver 
(WebBridge, SFX, or whatever).

But it sounds like what you want to do is launch a search of your WebOPAC 
from within Infotrac to see if you own the periodical.  If this is correct, 
then all you need is access to Gale's admin module ("Infotrac 
config").  Once in the module, go to "Locations" and "modify".  Scroll down 
a bit and you'll see a "Library Holdings" section.  The URL to enter is

        http://yourserver/search/i?SEARCH=

Enter whatever you want for the link text, then Save and Exit (you can 
ignore the annoying ingenta screen which comes up when you save the Modify 
location page).  The next time you enter an Infotrac database, you should 
see the link text;  clicking it will launch a search for the ISSN in your 
catalog.

(Note that this assumes that Gale hasn't changed the admin module and/or 
gotten rid of this basic functionality for some sites but not others.  This 
is how things work for us, today.)

Bob Duncan


~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Robert E. Duncan
Systems Librarian
David Bishop Skillman Library
Lafayette College
Easton, PA  18042
duncanr at lafayette dot edu
http://www.library.lafayette.edu/