Everything You Always Wanted To Know About SFX …

LRC Helpdesk TrainingJune 2012

What is ‘SFX’

• Link resolver and knowledge base for e-journals and e-books, from ExLibris

• Links into iCat through regular harvesting of basic metadata

• Generates A-Z list of e-journals and SFX menu• Allows linking out from databases to full-text• Doesn’t stand for anything now but was

originally ‘special effects’ and originated at Ghent University in the late 1990s

What does this mean in practice?

• One-stop list of e-journals (and eventually, e-books) from every provider, in one place

• As this is the oldest link resolver on the market, it is very technical compared to competitors such as SerialsSolutions

• Allows a range of linking (to full text, abstract, TOC) if we wished to set this up

• From databases and iCat full-text articles can be accessed within two clicks

Behind the scenes …

Where most of the work happens

First, what about that terminology?!

• Source = where the search process begins• Target = database or provider• Object = journal or book• Object portfolio = journal or book within a

target• Linking parameters = authentication• Institutes = different sites (not used)

Sources include …

• iCat• Databases with the ‘Find it!’ button• COPAC• Google Scholar• SFX Citation List and A-Z list of e-journals• Zetoc

Targets include …

• All the usual databases – but at the moment with standard system generated names so ‘Science Direct’ is ‘NESLI2 Elsevier Science Direct Freedom Collection’

• Some miscellaneous groups such as ‘Free e-journals’ which are lists from different providers, brought together

• Services such as Amazon (for book reviews)

Target list – a tick means ‘active’

Understanding what the buttons mean

Investigating an active target

Investigating an active target service - 1

Investigating an active target service - 2

Investigating active object portfolios

Behind the scenes of object portfolios

Terminology again!

• Target Service Parser – system generated, otherwise we use BULK:BULK and link to journal homepage URL only

• Parser – only used if a target service one does not exist

• Parse Param – identifying code for the journal, usually taken from the URL

• Threshold – dates the journal is available to us

An example …

• We would like to activate the journal “Test for SFX” in the database “ADISONLINE”

• First, we need to search the knowledge base to see if this journal (object) already exists – we can search by title and/or ISSN

Searching for an object

If no results, we need to add the object

Adding an object

Title added with system generated identifier (no ISSN)

Now to create a portfolio (linking the object to a target)

Find your target …

Add link through to the journal (parse param)

Adding thresholds (dates)

Finished! Now to check that it works

Generated SFX menu

Harvesting into A-Z list/iCat

• Usually takes 24 hours after setting up a new object portfolio, or making any changes, for it to appear in the A-Z list or iCat

• Titles can be searched in various ways and we have tried to add all previous titles where they are available to us

• E-books are available in iCat only, by title and author

The e-journals A-Z – labels are customizable if we wish

E-journals A-Z, title search

E-journals A-Z, the information button

E-journals A-Z, category browse

E-journals A-Z, locate search (publisher or provider)