[Web4lib] Link Evaluator Firefox Extension

[Eric Hellman]

OCLC Openly Informatics has just released some free, open-source 
software that we developed to help libraries deal with one aspect of 
the eResource fulfillment problem- How does a library easily and 
quickly determine which journals and other electronic resource have 
"disappeared" because of subscription snafus. It's a free add-on for 
the Firefox web browser that acts as an advanced link-checker.

It's a spin-off of the link-checking technology that we have been 
developing as part of the machinery we use to maintain the linking 
knowledgebases we produce for 1Cate, Worldcat and offerings from 
other companies. In addition to basic link checking, Link Evaluator 
can check for the presence of "green-flag" and "red-flag" phrases in 
linked-to resources. By working inside the Firefox browser, 
LinkEvaluator can exactly duplicate a user's experience and detect 
authentication problems. The green- and red- flag phrases can be 
supplied by editing preferences, or by inserting them into an html 
page of links to evaluate. LinkEvaluator is also multi-threaded, so 
it works up to 4 times faster than other link checking plugins.

The developer behind this work is Filip Babalievsky; you can contact 
either of us with questions or kudos;  there's also email list that 
we've set up so that the community can share Link Evaluator 
configurations and link pages.

For more information and downloads, please see 
http://openly.oclc.org/linkevaluator/  and 
http://openly.oclc.org/pr/15012007.html

Eric
-- 

Eric Hellman, Director                            OCLC Openly 
Informatics Division
eric at openly.com                                    2 Broad St., Suite 208
tel 1-973-509-7800 fax 1-734-468-6216              Bloomfield, NJ 07003
http://openly.oclc.org/1cate/      1 Click Access To Everything