360 Link: Use Context Objects in Spans (COinS) to Enrich 360 Link

There's an easy way for you to make 360 Link even more valuable to your library's patrons. It's an OpenURL development called COinS (Context Objects in Spans). COinS lets the publishers of web pages embed special links into citations on HTML pages so that the citations on those pages can be converted into OpenURL links.

360 Link patrons who are viewing web resources such as blogs or wikis (for example, Wikipedia), or other free resources that use COinS, can launch an OpenURL search for full-text in your library's resources -- right from the embedded citations.

Patrons can ask 360 Link to look for full-text in your library's holdings from any resource that uses COinS, as in the example below of a citation in a journal's table of contents:

After clicking "Look Up Article," the patron sees:

360 Link works through COinS web-browser extensions, so linking to your library's e-resources through COinS is easy. There are several, free, open-source browser extensions (also known as plug-ins or add-ons) for Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer that you can download to automatically find OpenURL links from COinS. 360 Link works with these extensions to enrich the research experience for your library's patrons.

Here are places where you can learn more about some of the available COinS browser extensions:

LibX - from Virginia Tech University Libraries

Zotero - from the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University

OpenURL Referrer - from OCLC

OpenURL Referrer - from OCLC

You can learn more about COinS here.

• Date Created: 9-Feb-2014
• Last Edited Date: 21-Feb-2014
• Old Article Number: 7275