Hi,

I don't think that we can be the only ones struggling to keep the
ejournal URLs on our OPACs up to date. Although we are out to tender for
a link resolver and portal system and will be looking at serial
management systems in the near future, at present we have to do it the
old-fashioned way i.e. by hard graft. Other times we spot problems
purely by a chance encounter, as in the following example.

We have had online access through Ingenta Select (and its previous
incarnation Catchword) ever since early 1999 to 6 journals published by
Multilingual Matters, or is it Channel View Publications, its imprint?
Strangely enough this is significant because the URLs we have on our
OPAC for two of its titles, are no longer working, and all because the
mm in the URL for the publisher Multilingual Matters has changed to cv
for its imprint Channel View Publications.

It's not the first time subtle changes in publisher imprints on Ingenta
Select have caused us problems, we had some problems a long while back
when Taylor and Francis reorganised some of its titles within its
imprints, causing a change in the publisher code used in the URL. We
also had some problems when Sage changed some of its journals codes, and
links stopped working.

I almost didn't notice that there had been a change because there was an
automatic redirection in place on Ingenta Select for the Journal of
Sustainable Tourism, one of the Channel View Imprints on my first
attempt. Once again it depends on which server one ends up on as to
whether a redirect is in place to take you to the up to date content for
this title.

It was only when I checked International Research in Geographical
Education (IRGEE), that I ended up on Ingenta Select on a page where the
latest volume was Volume 10 Issue 1 2001!! There was no redirection for
this title when I tried it, and the URL in the address bar was still
showing the publisher as mm not cv as one might expect. My first
question was has this journal ceased or is it running behind schedule?
When I changed the mm for cv I got taken to the correct page where the
latest volume was Vol. 11(2) (2002)

Having reported problems with servers on Ingenta Select not always
having the same content previously, it seemed that I was encountering a
similar problem and once again it appeared to be that some servers (or
one at least) were not redirecting the link to the correct up to date
page for that title. I have now reported this problem to ingenta select,
so it may be sorted by the time you check some of these links.

If I end up on the following servers there is no redirect in place for
IRGEE and I end up on an out of date page:

http://isacco.ingentaselect.com/vl=12676153/cl=11/nw=1/rpsv/catchword/mm
/10382046/contp1.htm

Or

http://konstanza.ingentaselect.com/vl=3772318/cl=35/nw=1/rpsv/catchword/
mm/10382046/contp1-1.htm

Or

http://mustafa.ingentaselect.com/vl=1066404/cl=38/nw=1/rpsv/catchword/mm
/10382046/contp1.htm

If I end up on the following servers for the Journal of Sustainable
Tourism there is no redirect for this title and once again I end up on
an out of date page where the latest issue for this journal is Vol. 9(4)
(2001) rather than Vol 19(5) (2002):

http://isacco.ingentaselect.com/vl=13145285/cl=29/nw=1/rpsv/cw/mm/096695
82/contp1.htm

When did this change happened, well it must have been in 2002 judging by
the content of the out of date page. So are we the only ones that didn't
spot this? No!

I then searched COPAC (http://www.copac.ac.uk/) to see if they had
correct links for IRGEE. Only Birmingham had correct link for this title
on its catalogue, all the others had mm rather than cv, in some cases
they got redirected, in other cases they didn't.

I then searched COPAC for Journal of Sustainable Tourism to see if they
had correct links. Not one had the correct electronic link to this
resource, although some got redirected.

One concern about some of the entries on COPAC was that they were lots
of different URLs for these titles, some linking to specific servers,
some linking to www.catchword.com (which is still working), so with
extraneous material in the URL that isn't needed.


This episode raises a number of questions:

1. It appears to be a bit of a hit or miss affair, if one is using mm in
the URL, that one gets redirected to the correct and up to date site for
this title. It can't be very impressive for the users to end up on a
site which hasn't been updated for over a year. Not a good advert for
ejournals.

2. Who is the publisher of these titles? Is it Channel View
Publications, Multilingual Matters or Multilingual Matters and Channel
View Publications? Is the publisher aware that this change means some of
us are being directed to old content, which is not publicity for these
titles. Why make that particular change in the first place?

3. When are these problems with some of the Ingenta Select servers not
being in synch going to be resolved? For those of us checking titles,
how can we be sure we are seeing the latest content?

4. How are we to be kept up to date with these subtle changes? How long
does a redirect stay in place?

Finally what is the correct URL for these titles:

IRGEE should be
http://mustafa.ingentaselect.com/rpsv/cw/cv/10382046/contp1.htm

Journal of Sustainable Tourism should be
http://www.ingentaselect.com/rpsv/cw/cv/09669582/contp1.htm

I hope this all makes sense and apologies if it is a little long-winded.

Cheers
Lesley


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesley Crawshaw, Faculty Information Consultant,
Learning and Information Services,
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB UK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
phone:  01707 284662      fax: 01707 284666
web: http://www.herts.ac.uk/lis/subjects/natsci/ejournal/
list owner: [log in to unmask]
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