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Stable URLs

Faculty: providing your students with a stable URL for books, articles and electronic reserve items gives them fast access to the readings without having them come into the library. This guide talks about the nuts and bolts of constructing these URLs.

Stable URls for Database Searches

There may be times when you would want to present the student with the results of a search, which would be a selection of articles, rather than just one article. Some of our database vendors have specific procedures for getting a stable URL for a search:

Ebscohost

Ebscohost

  • Perform a search 
  • Click on the link Alert/Save/Share
  • Copy the Persistent link to search (copy & paste)

The Permalink includes EZ Proxy authentication, so there is no need to modify it. 

 

 screen shot from an ebsco search

Proquest

Proquest:

Create an account in Proquest, log onto it, save your search, then click on  “My Research link” at the top of the page, and then the “Searches” tab. Then click “Get link.” 		getting a proquest stable url for s search

Example: http://proxy.library.cpp.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/search/779571?accountid=10357

Library Catalog

Library Catalog: 
  • With the Library Catalog, (unlike Ebsco or Proquest, above) you are not searching for articles, but for entire books or journals
  • Perform a search
  • Highlight and copy the URL at the top of the browser window
  • Craft your search carefully, and test it from time to time, as changes to the contents of the catalog will change your results over time.
 screen shot from the library catalog showing the URL at the top of the browser

Examples:

1. List of Spanish language periodicals http://opac.library.cpp.edu/search~S1/X?%28Espanol**+or+espana**+or+norte+or+arte+or+museo+or+hispan**+or+historia+or+noticia**+or+mexican**+or+revista+or+pais+or+confluencia+or+ciencia+or+sociedad+or+Economica+or+Economico+or+politico**+or+politica+or+latinoamerican**+or+cuaderno**+or+boletin+or+archivo**+or+Americas+or+opinion%29&SORT=AX&l=spa

2. http://tinyurl.com/leteyyu [This is a search for Industrial Chemistry Journals; I used a URL shortening service for this exmaple]

Examples of using URLs for Library Catalog searches can be seen on FN228: Food and Culture: Searching the Library Catalog

With long URLs such as these, consider using a URL shortening service.

Oregon PDF

For OregonPDF, you can take the URL from the top of the browser after doing a search:

screenshot from oregon pdf

You then have to add our proxy string (http://proxy.library.cpp.edu/login?url=) to it: 

Search on Asthma
http://proxy.library.cpp.edu/login?url=http://www.oregonpdf.org/search-results.cfm?crit=all&type=multiple&searchString=asthma

(May 13, 2015)