As the size and scope of the “digital library” continues to increase, maintaining researcher efficiency is proving more difficult. Mason’s library subscribes to 15,000+ electronic journals and many more commercial database services so we see the benefits and the challenges of this information-rich environment on a daily basis.

It is not an easy task to determine the “best” resource for a given subject—you might prefer a database that provides wide subject coverage but find at best it only provides abstracts to relevant material. Meanwhile, the library may well offer access to the same content in full-text form but only when you use a different database. Beyond trying to keep abreast of who offers what, how can you insure that a search in one resource doesn’t overlook useful content buried deep within the “invisible web” of a competing system?

For the past several months University Libraries has supported work by Endeavor Information Systems and its own Library Systems Office as they have collaborated to develop and deploy a new tool that offers help in exploiting the potential of web-based information. We’re calling our implementation of this dynamic, context-sensitive linking tool Mason Link+

Relying on an emerging web standard (OpenURL), Mason Link+ offers a way to help integrate digital content by linking the results you obtain in one system to content made available in a different database altogether. A short example from a user’s perspective illustrates the concept:

1. A user conducts a search in Biotechnology and Bioengineering Abstracts (BBA) for "molecular cloning" ...finding a useful citation from the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Next to the citation is a small Mason Link+ icon. While BBA offers abstracts of articles, clicking the Mason Link+ icon generates a new page with related links.

2. The Mason Link+ screen offers access to the full text of the article in question--drawn from the library's subscription to the electronic version of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Several other relevant links are also provided: a Google ™ search for the author, a search of the WRLC catalog for the journal, and more. When the original citation is a book, Mason Link+ offers a link to book reviews on Amazon™.

3. Prior to the arrival of Mason Link+, only those researchers who performed their original search in the JBC Online system would have located the full-text content and they would have missed the many additional sources that the BBA index covers.

Where a database supports OpenURL linking, our Mason Link+ system will search the internet and present you with clickable links that expand your retrieval options:

• often the complete text of an article, or
• links to book reviews,
• information about the author,
• bibliographic information about the journal,
• an ILL request form if we are unable to provide the online text [new 7/21/03],
• links to public internet sources (e.g., a Google search on the author/title),
• and more.

During the spring, we will be increasing the number of databases that Mason Link+ supports and we fully expect that more vendors will begin incorporating OpenURL links within their systems during the coming year. Today you’ll find the Mason Link+ icon in databases from:

As new systems add support for OpenURL linking (and by extension our Mason Link+ service) we’ll announce them on the library’s website (http://library.gmu.edu).

If you have questions about Mason Link+ or OpenURL linking in general, please contact Wally Grotophorst, Library Systems Office, University Libraries.