[WEB4LIB] Re: Serials Solutions modifications? -- LexisNexis linking

[Steven C. Perkins]

I have a search section at the bottom of my web page that allows you to 
search the journals in Westlaw or LEXIS-NEXIS to find titles containing 
materials on a subject of interest.

http://intelligent-internet.info/

It will then take you to a login page for the appropriate service.

Try it out.

Regards,

Steven C. Perkins



At 05:21 PM 11/12/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>After my earlier post, a few folks wrote asking how to link directly to
>LexisNexis journals. They don't make it easy, and it's not possible to link
>a browseable version of the periodical, but it is possible to link to a
>search page pre-set to only search the periodical in question. We arrived
>at the urls for doing this by downloading the 26 separate A-Z title list
>pages, eg:
>
>http://cisweb.lexis-nexis.com/sourceselect/listSources.asp?srcpdn=academic&product=universe&unix=http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe&extendRQ=Y&startingChar=C
>
>and then parsing the HTML for the relevant bits, namely the titles and urls
>for "Search this Title"; the titles were then correlated with the other
>data about the title (issn, coverage dates, completeness of coverage),
>which is available from:
>http://cisweb.lexis-nexis.com/marketsource/productTitlesText.asp?submit=Text+Report
>(they make this page tricky to find, but our trusty LexisNexis rep pointed
>me to it.)
>
>This process is a big ol' pain in the butt, but it does work. Call you
>LexisNexis rep and tell them to make it easier! They are just about the
>only fulltext provider to make it this difficult to obtain information that
>will drive the use of their products... (*grrr* *sigh*)
>
>I hope this helps; junky code available upon request.
>
>Ken
>
> >At 07:56 PM 11/10/2002, you wrote:
> >>Hi all,
> >>
> >>I don't know to what extent Serials Solutions is likely to modify their
> >>product to link to individual titles, but this is certainly something that
> >>you can do on the local level. At our library, we do our whole serials list
> >>locally, with no third party intervention; that gives us full control over
> >>the linking capability.
> >>
> >>It can be a little tricky to go it on your own, but if you someone who's
> >>Perl and SQL skills are adequate, it should be quite manageable. You want
> >>Perl to take the vendor's title lists out of their native form and squeeze
> >>the data into the right shape for your local database; you'll want the SQL
> >>& interfacing script language (I use PHP; you could use Perl there too) to
> >>handle the user side. We're quite happy with the end result, which we've
> >>been using in one form or another since 1998.
> >>
> >>You can see the current implementation at:
> >>http://www6.wittenberg.edu/lib/research/ejournals/
> >>(although the URL just says "ejournals", it actually has our print and
> >>microfilm holdings as well)
> >>
> >>(The UNC Greensboro library has a similar and probably more extensive
> >>project at:
> >>http://journalfinder.uncg.edu/uncg/ )
> >>
> >>Be not afraid -- do it yourself! (I expect that it would be possible to
> >>take the SS list and run some Perlish modifications, but at that point, you
> >>might as well save yourself a few thousand bucks on SS and just do the
> >>whole thing yourself.)
> >>
> >>Caveats:
> >>1. The startup time on this is not negligible; a personweek or two, with an
> >>incremental hour or two for each new vendor you want to include (since you
> >>need to write individual data-loaders).
> >>2. Libraries that don't have the in-house scripting skills will be happier
> >>just using the plain SS product. Unless, of course, you've always wanted an
> >>excuse to learn Perl... ;)
> >>
> >>If anyone wants to tackle something like this, I'll be happy to help out,
> >>though I'll probably be more useful to folks who are inclined toward
> >>Unix/Linux development.
> >>
> >>Joy and independence,
> >>Ken
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>Ken 
> Irwin                                               kirwin at wittenberg.edu
> >>Reference/Electronic Resources Librarian        (937) 327-7594
> >>Thomas Library, Wittenberg University
> >
>
>Ken Irwin                                               kirwin at wittenberg.edu
>Reference/Electronic Resources Librarian        (937) 327-7594
>Thomas Library, Wittenberg University

                          \\\\\\\\\*/////////
Steven C. Perkins                       sperkins at interaccess.com
                   http://intelligent-internet.info/
                 IQ-ubed, Intelligent Internet Information
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