Ian Winship wrote:
> We try to check our database and ejournal links as part of our regular Web
> page link checking process using LinkAlarm, but unfortunately the major
> ejournal services like ingenta and SwetsNet don't allow robots, so many
> ejournals can't be checked. Does anyone know of a suitable alternative?
We may be talking about different types of link checking here but our link
checker merely checks that the URLs in the 856 fields are accessible.
They are typically the home page or the page listing available issues of
each journal, which is freely accessible by anyone. It is only when a
user chooses a particular issue to see the contents page (still freely
available) and clicks on the full text link of a particular article that
s/he finds full text is no longer accessible. Even then they may retrieve
a page offering an option to pay to view the article. Is there any link
checker which can actually check if full text is accessible and not just
contents pages or pages telling the user how much it will cost to view the
article?
Our link checker (part of the library system) can check an address such as
http://www.ingenta.com/journals/browse/bpl/issr?mode=direct
but then reports that the site has "moved temporarily" to a new URL 260+
characters long!
I understand that some publishers, system vendors, and presumably
aggregators/agents, are developing electronic notification/delivery of
e-journal issues or checkin records (with URLs of individual issues).
Electronic notification of lapsed subscriptions must be relatively easy
to develop.
Mieko
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Mieko Yamaguchi [log in to unmask]
Technical Services Manager/System Coordinator +44 (0)1248 382970
Main Library, University of Wales Bangor, UK +44 (0)1248 382979 (Fax)
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