WilsonLink (powered by SFX) - Document Suppliers

Wilson is introducing the WilsonLink service as a new option to WilsonWeb customers who want to integrate their entire online collections, even if they don’t own a link server. The WilsonLink service is powered by SFX technology and is available at no extra charge to WilsonWeb customers. The Wilson hosted SFX link server will help users find a full text article, even if the full text isn’t in a WilsonWeb database. By clicking on the WilsonLink icon from the search results pages, a user will launch an automatic search of all your library’s OpenURL compliant databases. Now it will be possible to find the desired full text record wherever that record is located in the library’s electronic databases.

In addition, WilsonLink provides extended services, including ERIC searching, an Internet search and document delivery options. Libraries can also bypass the WilsonLink service by going directly to their own SFX server, or they can choose not to use any SFX technology through WilsonWeb.

Here’s how it works.

If the library’s administrator chooses to enable the WilsonLink service by selecting one of several optional menus available in the Administrative Module, the user of the WilsonWeb database will see a WilsonLink icon next to each record found in the Wilson database. If the presence of a full text record is not indicated next to the search results record by a full text icon, the user can click on the WilsonLink icon to locate a desired full text article. WilsonWeb, at the prompting of the user, goes out through the WilsonLink (SFX powered) server and searches for the full text for that article.

WilsonLink can do this because the WilsonLink server technology maintains a knowledgebase of the holdings and the link-to syntax of all the full text providers and other service providers that appear on the WilsonLink menus. The WilsonLink server compares the details of the item you are requesting against its holdings knowledgebase and returns a provider-dependent hyperlink for each of the sites that are known to provide full text or other relevant information relating to the document requested.

In order to retrieve the full text article, however, the library must be a subscriber to the indicated database.
A supplemental search is also offered for related information from ERIC.

If a full text record is not found within the library’s electronic collection, the user may purchase the article from a document retrieval service. A search of the Internet for the title of the article is also possible and may locate the full text article and/or provide other related information.

It is now possible to customize the WilsonLink icon. Please refer to the Administration Module for instructions.

See our Administrator's Manual for more information on WilsonLink/SFX.