Discovery add-on tools and browser extensions
Ensuring students and academic staff make best use of subscribed resources can be a continual struggle for libraries. This is particular pertinent in a climate where subscription costs are ever increasing at a time where library budgets are continuously squeezed. This often leads to the challenging situation where course leaders and designers believe particular subscription resource are “core” to student learning but real world usage fails to justify continual subscription.
The introduction of discovery solutions was driven by the need to aggregate the increasingly complex and disparate array of library subscriptions into a single searchable platform to aid users’ easy navigation - replicating a “Google-like” search experience. Nevertheless, however effective discovery solutions may be, their success is based on users starting their discovery journey from the library’s platform.
Accessing subscribed content “outside” of the library
The reality is of course that many users will still begin their online resource discovery journey outside of the library which can lead to them discovering their library’s subscribed content from Google searching only to be met by a paywall.
To this end a number of products are available, both free and subscribed, to aid the surfacing of library subscriptions
Browser extensions
All of the main discovery solutions used in the UK use OpenURL-compatible link resolvers. Google Scholar offers the facility for libraries to provide article level links to their subscription resources direct from Google Scholar search results. In order to set this facility up, libraries need to activate with their discovery vendor. Once set up, library holdings are made available to Google’s automated indexing system.
Libraries can create a customised linking label from Scholar search results e.g. Find Full Text @X University
LibKey browser extension is both freely available to individuals to download and to libraries on a subscription basis. Going beyond Google Scholar Library Links, LibKey checks for libraries’ subscription content on websites such as PubMed and Wikipedia as well as publishers’ pages.
A number of university libraries subscribe to LibKey Nomad allowing the browser extension to be downloaded across their network appearing by default on the university’s computer image.
Lean Library from Technology from Sage is a broadly similar product again available both freely to individuals and to libraries on a subscription basis. Lean Library offers libraries the opportunity to also provide custom branding and messages that will appear next to users’ search results.
Again, a number of university libraries now subscribe to Lean Library allowing the browser extension to be available across their network by default on their computer image.
Get Full Text Research (GetFTR)
Get Full Text Research (styles as GetFTR) is a free to use browser extension that provides checks against library holdings on publisher’ websites providing users with a link to their library’s holdings direct from the publishers’ site. When a user visits a publisher site they will see a GetFTR button appear next to search results where their library has subscribed access.
Surfacing Open Access Content
The above products work in tandem with library subscriptions in order to better surface content and aid user navigation to the content that their institution has paid for. In addition, there are browser extensions specifically designed to surface Open Access versions of journal articles e.g. article preprints.
Open Access Button is a free browser extension designed to help users find Open Access versions of articles that would normally be only accessible behind paywalls. On finding an article on, for example, a publishers’ site the Open Access Button can check to see if an OA version is available.
Unpaywall is a similar product, available as a free browser extension to users to find free to access versions of scholarly articles by automatically scanning university and government sites, open-access repositories, and databases like PubMed Central, the DOAJ, Crossref, and DataCite.