Question

When I find a citation for a dissertation in a third party database, should the Alma Link Resolver show a link to ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Global? I can find the dissertation in Primo.

Answer

No. The link resolver attempts to match on portfolios in a collection, but the ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Global collection has no portfolios. (It does has records in CDI, allowing for results in Primo searches.)

Instead, you should activate the ProQuest General Electronic Service to display links to this database. Configuration > Fulfillment > Discovery Interface Display Logic > General Electronic Service. If the ProQuest GES is not already listed on your Institution tab, switch to the Community tab and search for ProQuest and copy it. The default options are generally fine, but you may need to add your proxy prefix to the URL Template field.

This GES is configured with a Service Availability Rule that will only display the link when genre=dissertation is in the incoming openURL. It takes the dissertation's title and performs a search in the database. Not all dissertations are available as full text from ProQuest, so some searches will fail to find a result. 

• Article last edited: 05-Nov-2021