When the following core metadata elements; ISSN, Date, Volume, Issue, Start Page, Article Title, and Author Last Name are available in the data set from the referring source, 360 Link uses OpenURL linking to EBSCO. The OpenURL syntax will be used in various combinations of these elements with the minimum requirement of ISSN, Volume, Issue and Start Page. In these situations, the database-display order that your library specifies in your 360 Link settings does not have an impact on which EBSCO database the user is actually taken to.

When the data set lacks the core four metadata elements (ISSN, Volume, Issue, and Start Page) 360 Link uses a search syntax that sends specific metadata elements as field searches (publication title (SO), author surname (AU) and year (DT)) in addition to the article title as a keyword search. This helps increase the likelihood of a patron finding the full-text item, especially for newspaper articles, which are inherently difficult for OpenURL link resolvers. When the search syntax is used, your database display ordering does have an impact. 360 Link is able to specify from which database EBSCO should retrieve the full text.

The search syntax works best for libraries that have turned on the EBSCO feature called Zero Results Prevention. This feature runs SmartText searching against your search terms using summarization queuing all of the main words and phrases against the database.

For more information, see the following EBSCO Support documents:

• Date Created: 9-Feb-2014
• Last Edited Date: 29-Oct-2015
• Old Article Number: 7251