Cost savings

The cost of course packs can be a significant financial burden to TWU students. Furthermore, depending on the subject area, students may be paying for materials to which they already have free access through the library. One way of reducing the cost of course packs is to provide students with links to online, full-text articles available through databases subscribed to by the TWU Library.  

Avoiding Copyright Entanglements

While it is tempting to print the articles, e-mail them to students as PDFs, or provide a copy of the PDF on MyCourses, all of these solutions run afoul of copyright law. The legal way to provide students with access to online articles is to provide them with what is known as a permanent or persistent link that takes them directly to the article in question. The access process allows the database providers to  ensure that those accessing articles are indeed TWU students. 

One of the challenges of creating persistent links is that not all databases allow us to create them and of those that do, each has a different method.

EBSCOhost Databases

EBSCOhost databases provide a persistent/permanent link from within the full record of an article.

Search --

Scroll --

Copy and paste --

When students click on the link, it will take them into the TWU library website. If they're off campus they'll have to log in, after which they'll be taken directly to the article.

Using RefWorks

For many other databases, there's a relatively easy way of creating persistent links using RefWorks. The linked, brief (3:22) flash tutorial walks you through the procedure of setting up a course-related RefWorks account, finding, and importing the required links. 

RefWorks Persistent Links Tutorial [PDF]

Sage Database

Sage Journals Online do not provide persistent/permanent links to full-text PDFs. However, if you post the link below and the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of a PDF, students can easily navigate to the document you have in mind. To find the DOI for a Sage document, click on the Abstract link in your results list and scroll to the bottom of the full bibliographic record that opens.

https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/

For example, if they click on the link above from off campus, they will be asked to sign in, after which they will be taken to this page. All they have to do is copy and paste the DOI (in the case of the example,10.1177/0093854809354961) into the doi search window. The process is illustrated below.

Find the article in Sage --

Scroll down --

Find the DOI --

Give students the DOI and EZProxy DOI resolver link in MyCourses or an e-mail -- https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/

Students copy the DOI, click on the link and paste the DOI into the resolver search box.