[Wactclc-alma] [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Thu May 31 15:03:53 PDT 2018

Oh, wow. That is weird. And now I have a different problem. Fix a problem and a few more pop up…

But at least EBSCO links seem to be working now and I found out that the password for my guest login doesn’t work.

Lily

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Herman, Amy
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2018 10:43 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: {Spam?} Re: [Wactclc-alma] [External] RE: FW:RE: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

That’s interesting Lily.  I looked up the same article in my Primo and yours.  Here is the difference on the View It pages of our libraries, even though we do also have subscriptions to Business Source Premier and Vocational & Career Collection.

[cid:image005.jpg at 01D3F8F0.5E832990]               [cid:image007.jpg at 01D3F8F0.5E832990]

When I look up the journal directly in Business Source Premier, that article is simply missing from that issue (page 48 is skipped in the results).  The articles on either side of it DO show up in my primo results with working links.  So for some reason mine is kind-of-sort-of working more like it should than yours is.  But I have no idea why!

[cid:image009.jpg at 01D3F8F0.5E832990]

Amy Herman
Library Faculty | Olympic College
1600 Chester Avenue | Bremerton, WA 98337
aherman at olympic.edu<mailto:aherman at olympic.edu> | 360-475-7256

[alma signature]

From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Kun, Lily
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2018 9:57 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [External] RE: [Wactclc-alma] FW:RE: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Hi Wade,

Here’s an example of the problem. None of my EBSCO links are working.

https://spscc-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_proquest216516507&context=PC&vid=SPSCC&search_scope=EVERYTHING&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US

Guest login:

·       ID: libstudent at spscc.edu<mailto:libstudent at spscc.edu>          PW: C1ipper!!

Lily

From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Guidry, Wade
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2018 9:53 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] FW:RE: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Amy and all,

The change to the service in Alma would take effect immediately.

Meanwhile, based on Erin Bell’s message below (not sure what institution), seems like she is reporting a temporary outage of the OpenURL service at EBSCO.
And the service link developed by her support contact at EBSCO is intended as a workaround until EBSCO fixes their issue.

At least, that’s my interpretation of her comments.

In addition, Erin is in Australia, meaning a different Alma environment entirely, and possibly a different EBSCO environment.

If anyone has a Primo article permalink example of a scenario that appears to be similar to Erin’s report below, along with EZProxy credentials to get me through your proxy, I can take a look and let you know what I think.

Meanwhile, just a point of clarification on the link Erin received from Ebsco. The link references the institution’s EZProxy instance (so that would need to be changed). As well, the IF statement prior to the URL is important.

In addition, the link references the specific 3-letter database codes subscribed to by Erin's institution. So that would be institutionally specific as well.

And just a reminder, the root cause of a citation in Primo not matching successfully to the content on the vendor side is:

1. Citation info that does not match between Primo and the vendor, at least for OpenURL purposes, or
2. Parsing of the OpenURL parameters fails on the vendor side, either because the parser parameters coming from Primo don't match the vendor side (typically occurs as vendors update their platforms)

Meanwhile, for EBSCO specifically, Ex Libris does offer a "link checker" that can be enabled on the Alma side.

This feature will 'check' links for ebsco content for validity, prior to sending the link to Ebsco for content resolution.

https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/090Integrations_with_External_Systems/030Resource_Management/230Checking_Full-Text_URLs_with_the_EBSCO_Link_Resolver_Plugin

As of a few years ago, enabling this feature did not improve Ebsco content resolution when compared to not using it, when we tested this functionality at University of Puget Sound. I asked around at ELUNA about this, but didn't get any definitive info that changed my mind.

Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu
(509) 760-4474

From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Herman, Amy
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2018 8:41 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] FW:RE: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Did you all see this?  Has anyone here tried it?  I am getting up the nerve to edit my EBSCO services page with this link and see if it works for us, when we would normally encounter the EBSCO OpenURL Connection screen of death…  Maybe I will wait til the break…

I can’t remember, do edits to Services linking take effect in Primo immediately or is there some kind of overnight delay?

Amy Herman
Library Faculty | Olympic College
1600 Chester Avenue | Bremerton, WA 98337
mailto:aherman at olympic.edu | 360-475-7256

From: Alma <mailto:alma-bounces at exlibrisusers.org> On Behalf Of Erin Bell
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2018 7:37 PM
To: Ex Libris user community discussion list for Alma <mailto:alma at exlibrisusers.org>
Subject: [External] RE: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Hi Petrina,

This is the same screen we see (sorry forgot to attach the screenshot!). We JUST received a workaround update on this and it’s working! Cameron Wu at EBSCO developed a dynamic link which we add to the Service of each EBSCO collection:
IF(rft.atitle)
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true%26db=aph%26db=l0h%26db=ant%26db=aft%26db=air%26db=nlabk%26db=bvh%26db=bas%26db=bth%26db=jlh%26db=ufh%26db=iih%26db=i3h%26db=ddh%26db=nlebk%26db=eoh%26db=eue%26db=egi%26db=hev%26db=f3h%26db=8gh%26db=heh%26db=hxh%26db=hch%26db=hia%26db=hlh%26db=lft%26db=lpr%26db=lxh%26db=ulh%26db=f5h%26db=cmedm%26db=loh%26db=mah%26db=nfh%26db=poh%26db=pbh%26db=bwh%26db=rlh%26db=e0h%26db=rih%26db=rph%26db=sih%26db=s3h%26db=ser%26db=23h%26db=pif%26dli0=NL%26dlv0=Y%26dld0=nlabk%26dli1=FA%26dlv1=Y%26dld1=rph%26type=1%26site=ehost-live%26bquery=(SO(URLENCODE(%7brft.jtitle%7d)))AND(DT%7brft.year%7d)AND(TI%22URLENCODE(%7brft.atitle%7d)%22)

Instead of going to the openURL service page, this link redirects the user directly to EBSCO and searches all of our subscribed databases with just the Journal title, year and article title:

They have advised this is a workaround until they can get the OpenURL service page working, but we much prefer this option and will probably keep it.

Thanks,
Erin

From: Alma [mailto:alma-bounces at exlibrisusers.org] On Behalf Of Petrina Collingwood
Sent: Thursday, 24 May 2018 10:29 AM
To: Ex Libris user community discussion list for Alma
Subject: Re: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Hi Erin,
We are also often arriving at an EBSCO openURL service page with an error saying that no results were found when you can find the article within EBSCO.

Can you describe in more detail what solution EBSCO is working on for you?

Thanks,
Petrina

From: Alma <mailto:alma-bounces at exlibrisusers.org> On Behalf Of Erin Bell
Sent: Thursday, 24 May 2018 12:14 PM
To: Ex Libris user community discussion list for Alma <mailto:alma at exlibrisusers.org>
Subject: Re: [ALMA-L] Alma Link Resolver Not Working in EBSCOhost Databases

Hi,

We don’t have this exact problem, but have been experiencing issues with links resolving to EBSCO databases for some time. Not all articles, but many are resolving to an openURL Service page which results in an error when you click Submit (see screenshot). We have been working with EBSCO to resolve these issues rather than ExLibris, and they are developing a Dynamic link for our collections instead.
So opening a case with ExLibris is a good idea, but also reaching out to your EBSCO Sales Representative directly is also a good idea!

Erin

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