On Thu, 16 Mar 2000, Kirsty Meddings wrote:

> 
> Barbara,
> 
> The hope lies in recognising that such changes are unavoidable,
> in the short term at least, for as long as publishers continue to

Is this really the case? One of the added-value services
intermediaries might provide is some level of indirection between URLs
presented to users and publisher URLs, hiding publisher changes from the
user. Forgive me if I am misunderstanding .... I am not a user of the
service in question.

Lorcan


> buy and sell titles and imprints.  Given that this will continue
> to happen, the best thing a publisher (or their technology
> provider) can do is to provide timely notification of these
> changes in order to keep librarians up to date.  We have done
> this with the announcement below.
> 
> Although this is an ongoing problem it is a relatively
> small-scale one on CatchWord.  This year only 6 out of 670 of our
> journal URLs have changed.
> 
> This is not a new problem.  Titles, ISSNs, imprints and
> publishers have all changed in the paper world, and each change
> has required a change in the library catalogue in order to
> maintain accurate records.   CatchWord are committed to and
> successful in providing an easy means of linking to individual
> titles, which is why we publisher an explicit page of
> instructions that lists every title and its associated URL at
> www.catchword.com/link.htm .
> 
> The issue of publishers linking between article references and
> full text (as will be enabled by the CrossRef initiative) is a
> slightly different one that is best addresses through the use of
> the Digital Object Identifier.  DOIs can be assigned to
> individual articles, and a central database of DOIs and their
> associated URLs means that the location of a given article can be
> determined reliably by interrogating this database even if the
> URL changes for any reason.  CatchWord's technology will allow
> any of our publisher clients to participate in such initiatives,
> and we are already involved in CrossRef through our partnership
> with Taylor & Francis.
> 
> 
> Kirsty Meddings
> Library Liaison Officer
> CatchWord Ltd
> Tel: +44 (0)1235 555877
> Fax: +44 (0)1235 536500
> www.catchword.com
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barbara Merchant <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 16 March 2000 10:58
> Subject: Fw: [CatchWord Announce] Changes of Imprint
> 
> 
> Dear all
> 
> What hope is there for stable urls to use in our catalogues?? Or
> for
> publishers' plans to link to each others' sites from article
> bibliographies?
> 
> Barbara
> 
> > -- Begin original message --
> >
> > > From: "Kirsty Meddings" <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 16:51:57 -0000
> > > Subject: [CatchWord Announce] Changes of Imprint
> > > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > >
> > > Six of the journals on CatchWord have recently changed hands
> > > between publishers and/or imprints.  An unavoidable side
> effect
> > > of these moves is that the URLs for linking directly to the
> > > online versions of these journals have changed.  We apologise
> for
> > > these changes which are beyond our control, and would like to
> > > alert all librarians and information managers to the new URLs
> for
> > > the six journals affected:
> > >
> > > Aphasiology 0268-7038
> > > www.catchword.com/rpsv/cw/psych/02687038/contp1.htm
> > > Connection Science 0954-0091
> > > www.catchword.com/rpsv/cw/tandf/13600494/contp1.htm
> > > Dynamics and Stability of Systems 0268-1110
> > > www.catchword.com/rpsv/cw/tandf/02681110/contp1.htm
> > > Journal of Engineering Design 0954-4828
> > > www.catchword.com/rpsv/cw/tandf/09544828/contp1.htm
> > > Perspectives 1360-3108
> > > www.catchword.com/rpsv/cw/carfax/13603108/contp1.htm
> > > Physiotherapy Theory and Practice 0959-3985
> > > www.catchword.com/rpsv/cw/tandf/09593985/contp1.htm
> > >
> > > (Please note that UK academic libraries should replace
> > > www.catchword.com with http://pinkerton.bham.ac.uk or
> > > http://dandini.cranfield.ac.uk for optimum speed of access)
> > >
> > > Users currently following the old links to the above journals
> > > will be warned of the change and redirected.
> > >
> > > All other linking URLs remain the same and will not be
> affected.
> > >
> > > You can view a complete list of URLs for linking from your
> OPAC
> > > or library web pages to specific titles at
> > > www.catchword.com/link.htm
> > >
> > > We apologise for any inconvenience.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Kirsty Meddings
> > > Library Liaison Officer
> > > CatchWord Ltd
> > > Tel: +44 (0)1235 555877
> > > Fax: +44 (0)1235 536500
> > > www.catchword.com
> ===========================================================
> Barbara Merchant                [log in to unmask]
> Head of Library and Information Services
> SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research
> Mantell Building, University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9RF
> Phone: 01273 678066             Fax: 01273 685865
> Web: http://www.susx.ac.uk/spru/
> SPRU Library catalogue: http://sprulib.central.susx.ac.uk/
> ===========================================================
> 
> 
> 

Lorcan Dempsey          <URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/>
----------------------  -----------------------------------------------
ph: +44 (0)1225 826254  UKOLN (UK Office for Library & Info Networking)
fx: +44 (0)1225 826838  University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%