Dissertations and OpenURL
Geoff Sinclair
Nipissing University / Canadore College
(my own work on our local Dissertations & Theses FT target - forthcoming - is based on Geoff's work described here)
History:
A 2005 workaround parser: getAbstract, sent first 9 "words" (collections of non-whitespace) to ProQuest - problems when dissertation title contained parentheses
A 2007 workaround parser: getFullText, title search of PQDT (whole title) - fails with very long titles, possibly fails with other special characters.
Problem:
The workaround has become the work. How can the whole process be improved for FT linking to dissertations?
Mostly unique keys for linking to a dissertation:
-Repeatable, stable, ubiquitous
-Need to be shared by source and target
In PQDT:
-PQ Doc ID
-Pub/Order # (UMI)
-ISBN
Missing:
-DOI
Geoff thinks most reliable identifier currently is UMI number, but is a byproduct of an analog process of microfilming the dissertation. Dissertations now should be considered as born-digital objects.
Examining sources:
1) EBSCO LISTA - no ISSNs for DTA; has an ISTA acq. number.
OpenURL elements:
Problems - no ISSN; genre=bookitem
Hope - title=Dissertation Abstracts International (created a local object w/title Dissertation Abstracts International under the local PQDT target; result is successful linking to PQDT)
2) MathSciNet
Different publication - Dissertation Summaries in Mathematics (has ISSN) - not included in local target. Added object for this ISSN to local target, and it works!
3) EBSCO America History and Life (acquired from ABC/CLIO, so indexed differently from other EBSCO databases)
No SFX button on dissertation records. Had to go into EBSCOhost admin interface to set up OpenURL linking for the pub type=database (current default in EBSCOhost is pub type=journal - just deleted so field is blank. [JBK comment: what are the unintended consequences of changing this setting? Still, point is good that this kind of customization is a good way of making linking work the way we want.] Shows a dissection of EBSCO CustomLinks that explains why EBSCO passes non-ISSN records as books. There is some documentation, but not much, so call EBSCO help.
4) PsycINFO
Links containing DTA ISSNs work. Some links assign ISBNs and genre=book, and these links fail in the parser. Hope, though, b/c can put ISBNs into local target and enable linking.
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