[WEB4LIB] context-sensitive linking products

[Mike Poulin]

Hi Steve,
 
Actually in the case of Wilson -  they appear to license the SFX technology from ExLibris so it would be appropriate for them to refer to it by the brand name.
 
A much bigger question - one that I have posed to Wilson is:
 
Why would anyone want a SFX (linkserver) which could not be customized to the particular library's databases?  The current Wilson SFX server takes you to a host of services which few of us subscribe to (fee based services) and not to the services which we do subscribe to (Wilson's competitors).   There is no customization available at this time.   It seems to me that they have implemented technology without understanding the users.
 
Mike
 
 
 
 
-- 
/************************************************************/
Michael Poulin
Librarian for the Sciences and Electronic Resources
Noreen Reale Falcone Library
Le Moyne College
1429 Salt Springs Road
Syracuse, NY 13214
 
phone: 315-445-4332
fax:  315-445-4642
email:  poulinmw at mail.lemoyne.edu
/************************************************************/
 


>>> "Oberg, Steve" <STOBERG at TAYLORU.EDU> 01/22/03 10:54AM >>>
In light of recent postings to this list relating to Wilson's SFX implementation and the movement of many vendors to implement context-sensitive linking of some sort as a "value-added service" to libraries, I wanted to share a citation to a new article on this topic that I think is well worth reading:

Maria D. D. Collins and Christine L. Ferguson, Context-Sensitive Linking:  It's a Small World After All, Serials Review, Volume 28, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 267-282.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W63-47RHXT5-3/1/1803c65b2fd71f9d3e430f1ef2e5117d)

This article provides a review of costs, features, setup issues, etc. for four major products:  SFX, LinkFinderPlus, SIRSI's OpenURL Resolver, and 1Cate.

SFX was the first such product to market and is certainly the market leader with the most implementations of the major players thus far, but it bothers me that there is routine substitution of the brand name "SFX" for "context-sensitive linking" or the OpenURL protocol.

But hey, maybe nobody cares but me or I am preaching to the choir!  ;-)

Steve

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Oberg -- Electronic Resources Librarian
Taylor University -- Zondervan Library
http://www.tayloru.edu/library/ 






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