This is a difficult checking service to get right, and not just because Aspire is brokering access through a hosted solution and thus raising IP issues. The concept of 'Broken' links might also need to be expanded (were it technically possible) to include 'Inappropriate' links. Some of the extra challenges, off the top of my head:
* For us, some key resources require SAML (Shibboleth) authentication on-campus as well as off-campus. Even if we were able to in some way legitimately 'proxy' an Aspire IP auto-check requests to these resources, these would be rejected.
* Conversely, with academics creating and adding their own links, they may well add a URL which works on-campus, but which will fail from outside the campus IP range (because it is incorrectly configured for the appropriate non-IP authentication challenge). For an off-campus student, that is still a 'broken' link, even though an IP based check will return a thumbs-up.
* Also, there's a difference between a web page not returning a 403/404 et al error, and the 'full text' content (or equivalent) that that page references actually being accessible. Even some full-text journal providers only trigger an authentication request at the point of full-text request; so the abstract page (which may well be what the Aspire record is pointing to) will return a thumbs-up, while the attempt to access the full-text itself might be rejected. (Students will certainly consider it 'broken' when their attempt to access the full-text fails - either because it's outside of the university's subscription range, or not available from their location).
* We might also want to 'fix' links that aren't in themselves 'broken'. For instance links in: "Lists not under Library Review, containing Items which contain an ISBN, which are not pointing to the Library OPAC, where a match for that ISBN in the OPAC can been confirmed...". Those links might flawlessly resolve to the Waterstones catalogue, but that's not appropriate where the library can already satisfy that request...
* Students will, in some cases, also report correctly formatted links to online services as 'broken' when the problem is that they're mistyping their credentials, entering details in the wrong login screen, etc.
* And so on...
So, I think, there's quite a lot raised in the ambition to check 'broken' links, which needs more discussion and exploration, I would suggest. Right now, I'm not convinced that, above and beyond 'Feedback' and 'Help' buttons (where the latter has been added to a Tenancy) there's a need for an additional 'Report a broken link' button in every Item full view.
Regards
Richard Cross
Resource Discovery and Innovation Manager
Libraries and Learning Resources
Hollymount House
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham NG1 4BU
t: +44(0)115 848 4878
m: 07789 983916
e: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Talis Aspire Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian Corns (Talis)
Sent: 18 October 2010 17:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LIS-TALIS-ASPIRE] "Notification of broken links" - Alternative approach?
Hi all,
Recently, the idea "Notification of broken links" was declined. The idea was asking for an automated link checker and, as Chris explained in his comment, "...it is not possible for us to run an effective link checking service. Many of the links in Aspire are IP-location specific - i.e. they will work for students on campus or behind ezProxy but to Aspire they will appear broken. This makes it impossible for us to effectively implement link checking technology."
I have previously worked (pre-Talis) on a link-checking solution, a project which was abandoned due to the difficulties faced by libraries in managing the influx of links reported as broken which worked (for the reason Chris states), alongside factors such as the site being down when checked.
However, one recognised approach to the problem of finding out about broken links is to place the link-checking into the user's hands. A student discovering a broken link is provided the option to manually indicate the link as broken (e.g. from the view of the full resource) and the library is notified this way (e.g. via an email). This resolves the IP-specific issues, and also goes some way towards tackling those around the site being down - a user finding a link is broken will often try to search for the resource on the site and, on discovering the site is down, return at a later stage rather than flag the link and thus help filter these notifications out.
Do customers think this is a valid alternative? If so, I will raise an idea on customer's behalf of "User can indicate resource has broken link" and notify the list so that those that voted on the original idea can choose to vote on this new approach if they choose.
All the best
Ian
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