Apr
24
Questions from customers — linking to content
Posted by Jeff Lash: Product Director, MD Consult
I’ve been talking with a lot of our current customers about the upcoming enhancements, and there’s a handful of questions that have come up several times around linking to content on MD Consult.
I thought it would be worthwhile to post those questions (and answers, of course) here. If you have additional questions, post them in the Comments section below. We’ll answer questions in subsequent posts, and the answers to most questions will be addressed in our improved Help section on the new MD Consult or on the site itself.
- Q: We have links to MD Consult journals on our web site. Will those links to journal articles or journals, or books break?
- A: No. Links to individual journal articles, to lists of journals, and to pre-formatted journal searches will remain the same. No changes will be required by customers. The MD Consult Resource Center has information for institutional customers interested in learning more about linking to journals.
- Q: We also have links to the books on MD Consult — will those existing links to books break?
- A: No. Customers will not need to make any changes to links to books provided they are using the “durable URLs” that we provide. “Durable URLs” allow customers to set up permanent links to specific book titles on MD Consult. These durable URLs remain the same regardless of the edition of the book that is on MD Consult. The MD Consult Resource Center has information for institutional customers interested in learning more about durable URLs.
- Q: If MD Consult does not have the full text for an article, but our institution has access to the full text through another source, can we link to the full text through the other provider?
- A: Yes. In the Spring of 2006, MD Consult added functionality that allows customers to “link out†from MD Consult to full text through another provider. This requires that the institution has a piece of software called a “link resolver.” Articles in MD Consult search results will link to the link resolver; from there, the link resolver directs the person to the appropriate location for the full text. Institutional customers who are interested in establishing this functionality should contact their sales representative or Technical Support. Currently, this functionality is only provided for customers with link resolvers. This functionality currently provides links for all abstracts/citations, regardless of whether the institution has full text access. Links to the full text on MD Consult are still provided alongside links to the link resolver.
Comments
Re the question about book linking: I take exception with the statement that “These durable URLs remain the same regardless of the edition of the book that is on MD Consult.”
When there are author/editor/title changes with a new edition, these durable links fail. I fix them often enough on our pages/catalog.
The links we were warned could change, of the format http://home.mdconsult.com/das/book/view/xxxx have been more stable. When the durable links fail after edition changes, I sometimes use the das/book/view format.