M5.25 Journal subscription information provided to the ViTaL team by the initial set of actively collaborating institution
ViTaL, the Virtual Taxonomic Library is a component of the EDIT infrastructure, being created as part of WP5.3, which is concerned with the provision of Bibliographic tools for the taxonomic community. The services provided by ViTaL have been discussed in detail in previously published project documents. This report documents the completion of the milestone: M5.25 - Journal subscription information provided to the ViTaL team (NHML) by the initial set of actively collaborating institutions.
Goal
The ViTaL metasearch service uses Ex Libris SFX to provide an OpenURL resolution service. An OpenURL resolver accepts bibliographic reference details in a standard format. The service refers to a database relating the user and their parent institution to journal and other subscriptions to which they have access. The service then provides direct links
to the appropriate resources (where available), or will provide a set of options (such as Google Scholar searches or a hard copy order form) to provide the best possible degree of access to the content. OpenURL links pointing to the ViTaL servers can be embedded in catalogue search results, such as that of ViTaL's own metasearch tool, or those of other 3rd party search services.
Information requested
Staff at the various EDIT partner libraries were asked to provide the information detailing the journal, database and other relevant subscriptions which are currently in effect
Responses
Institutions taking part in the initial rollout NHML, RBG Kew and The Nationaal Herbarium Nederland (NHN) have have provided extensive information, and this has been added to the SFX database for the pilot of the system currently in progress. Other institutions already have their own SFX installation. Administration of these systems will be unchanged, ViTaL integration will not affect their day-to-day maintenance. Further subscription data from other libraries will be entered into the system as EDIT library staff are trained in the relevant administration tasks, when the SFX instances for each participating institution are installed and configured. This has the benefit ensuring that the subscription data is as up-to-date as possible for the handover of administration responsibilities of each institution's own data.