1. Full-Text Links: Fish, or Fishing License?
Ken Varnum
Senior Program Manager for
Discovery, Delivery, and Learning Analytics
University of Michigan Library
@varnum | | #litaforum

2. Based on research conducted by Kenyon Stuart, Ken Varnum, and Judith Ahronheim, published as “Measuring Journal Linking Success from a Discovery Service,” Information Technologies and Libraries, 2015 (34:1). doi:  /ital.v34i1.5607

3. Two-Pronged Research Project
(1) Full-text links from article discovery tool
(2)
Random sampling of full-text links
Full-Text Links: Fish, or Fishing

4. Summon-Provided Links
Interface uses the Summon API
Selectively adds a feedback link that goes to a Qualtrics survey
Full-Text Links: Fish, or Fishing

5. Full-Text Links: Fish, or Fishing License? @varnum
Error Reporting Form
In Qualtrics, we give options for normal problems, an other box, a comment box, and an address request (so we can reply to our users).
Full-Text Links: Fish, or Fishing

6. Summary of Reports From March 2012-October 2015….
6,618 problem reports
2,901,693 article searches
2,245,296 clicks on “MGet It” (full text)
Change to index-enhanced direct linking was in

7. Getting to the Full Story
User reports valuable…
…But not the whole story
Randomized sampling
2011: ArticlesPlus records
: Quarterly
of 10,497 articles plus records clicked on by users (selected randomly, after de-duping)
two records from each of the 100 serials most accessed through 360 Link. searched for each serial title within Summon using the serial’s ISSN or the serial’s title. 1st article — newest first sort, 2nd or 3rd page. 2nd article — oldest first sort, 2nd or 3rd page.
Full-Text Links: Fish, or Fishing

8. Summary of Samples 300-article samples, tested by 2 people each
From article on ITAL website
300-article samples, tested by 2 people each

9. Kinds of Full Text Links
From article on ITAL website

10. Direct Link Success Rates
From article on ITAL website

11. Summary Conclusions
More than 95% of direct- linked articles led to the correct resource.
About 60% of One-click (OpenURL) articles led to the correct resource.
20% of OpenURL links failed

12. What Does It Mean? We conclude….
More work is needed if OpenURL is to continue as a working standard
Trend to direct linking creates the risk of vendor lock-in
Recommend that libraries actively collaborate on identifying patterns of failure in OpenURL link resolution
Vendor lock-in — because the vendor-created direct links will not work after the library’s business relationship with the vendor ends. An OpenURL is less tightly bound to the vendor that provided it. This lock-in increases the cost of changing vendors. The emergence of direct links is a two-edged sword: users gain reliability but libraries lose flexibility and the ability to adapt.