CDI and Linking to Electronic Full Text
General
Primo results display only the full text links to which that library has access. If you subscribe to the article, book, or other material on a single platform, Primo displays only one full text link. Depending on the content and collection type, CDI uses the most suitable linking method (see Supported Linking Methods) to provide full text for an item. If you subscribe to the same item on several platforms, by default, CDI uses only one linking method according to priority settings (see Link Prioritization in the Merged Record) to provide full text links for each platform. You can change the default setting to display multiple links, if available. For more details, see Display All Links in Full Display for CDI.
In addition, the Quicklinks feature enables users to go to the PDF or HTML version of full text with a single click from the results list.
Supported Linking Methods
Primo supports the following linking methods, which are set at the collection level:
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OpenURL linking – Full text linking is handled by the link resolver (Alma/SFX), which allows the library to decide which links to display and their order. Where possible, Primo will add a platform-specific document ID to the OpenURL to allow the link resolver to use that ID to link to the full text instead of using metadata to create the link. This ensures a higher reliability of the links. OpenURL linking is used for approximately 60 percent of the collections indexed in CDI. Collections that use this method include primary publishers and, in general, collections that contain mainstream material such as articles and books that may be available from more than one platform.
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Link in Record – In cases where the record is uniquely available from a single platform and/or the link is difficult or impossible to create using the link resolver, Primo will use the link stored in the record, which has been provided by the information provider, in CDI. This method is used for approximately 40 percent of the collections. Collections that use this method include, for example, video collections (such as Alexander Street Press), some reference collections, or collections that contain special and unique material.
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Primo LinkTemplate CDI collections – This method is used rarely and is used for collections (for example, Naxos and Kanopy collections) where the linking method is the link in the record, but the provider requires Primo to add customer-specific parameters (which are stored in Primo’s linking templates) to the URL.
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Quicklinks – An optional feature that embeds links to the PDF and HTML full text directly into the brief display in Primo and Primo VE to provide a convenient and quick way for users to access full text from CDI with a single click. For more details, see Quicklinks Provider List.
Quicklinks in Brief ResultsSome providers require specific configurations for the links of their collections to access their content. In these cases, special credentials should be added to the link to create a customer-specific URL. For more information about CDI using these Linking Parser Parameters, see Customer Linking Parameters in CDI Links.
Direct Links
The term “Direct link” is often used in different contexts for different things. If not otherwise indicated, we use it to describe links that use the document ID of the original platform instead of metadata to link to the full text. Direct links are often more reliable than using metadata links. Direct links can be either links in the records (which are provided by the platform as part of the CDI data delivery) or links created by the link resolver if the OpenURL contained the document ID for a platform to which the user has access. Primo adds this document ID to the OpenURL for several collections, including Gale, Ingenta, and ProQuest and for primary publishers using a DOIs as a document ID. Both link resolvers (Alma and SFX) have functions that give preference to direct links over metadata links (if both are available) to increase the accuracy of linking. This setting is locally configurable.
Related documentation:
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For Alma, see Configuring the Order of Online Services.
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For SFX, see the Giving Preference to Links Using Vendor Identifiers Validated by Ex Libris as Preferred Linking IDs section in the SFX General User's Guide.
Link Prioritization in the Merged Record
Usually, all records that contribute to a merged record use either the link resolver or the link in the record method, but there may be cases where items from a collection using the link resolver method are merged with records using the link in the record method. If you have access only to one of those links, then it is displayed. However, if you have access to several of those platforms, then prioritization rules are applied.
Merged records can be created from records in a collection to which you may not subscribe.
The following prioritization rules are applied when offering a single link, all links, and Quicklinks:
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All records in a merged group are coming from collections using the link resolver – The merged record uses the link resolver (Alma/SFX), where the number of links displayed, the order of the links, and other priority settings are managed by the library. For Alma Link configuration, see Configuring the Order of Online Services.
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All records in a merged group are coming from a collection using the link in the record – Typically, an institution has access rights only to one of the available platforms, and therefore links to those platforms are displayed and used. If an institution has access to several platforms, preference is given in order for the following categories:
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Link in Record links for subscribed content (excluding open access links).
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Link in Record links for Open Access content.
If a category has multiple Link in record links, its links are prioritized as follows:
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Links from providers who have a configured preference. For more details, see Configuring Central Index and Proxy Settings for Primo VE or Configuring Provider Preferences for Primo/Alma. For Primo/SFX, see the Central Discovery Index section of the SFX General User's Guide.
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You do not need to configure precedence for all providers, but the configured providers have precedence over providers that do not have precedence.
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One or more of the records in a merged group is coming from a collection using the link resolver, and other records are coming from collections using the link in the record –
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If the library has no access to any of the collections using the link in the record, the merged record uses the link resolver.
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If the library has access to at least one of the collections that use the link in the record, priority is given in order for the following categories:
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Link in Record links for subscribed content (excluding open access links)
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Link resolver links from SFX/Alma
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Link in Record links for Open Access content
If a category has multiple Link in record links, its links are prioritized as follows:
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Links from providers who have a configured preference. For more details, see Configuring Central Index and Proxy Settings for Primo VE or Configuring Provider Preferences for Primo/Alma. For Primo/SFX, see the Central Discovery Index section of the SFX General User's Guide.
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You do not need to configure precedence for all providers, but the configured providers have precedence over providers that do not have precedence.
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Hybrid Collections
Some collections in CDI are hybrids, which have some content that uses the link resolver method (usually items with ISSN or ISBNs) and other content that uses the link in record method (usually items with no standard identifiers). With hybrid collections, each item uses its most suitable linking method. These collections have the indication Linking: Hybrid in the Community Zone/KnowledgeBase. For more details and a list of hybrid collections, see Hybrid Collections in CDI.
Display All Links in Full Display
By default, the full display of CDI records displays either one link in record or OpenURL links based on the prioritization settings for the best possible link to view full text. For more details, see Link Prioritization in the Merged Record.
If you prefer, you can display all eligible full text links to allow users to select their preferred source of the CDI record's full text. Eligible links are links to which the library has access through subscription or open access and that pass a minimum quality threshold as defined by Ex Libris. In case there are two Link in Record links to the same full text on the same provider platform, Primo/Primo VE shows only one of those links. If you have Link in Record links and OpenURL links to the same provider platform, duplicates are not removed since we can remove duplicates only within the Link in Record sections.
When this functionality is enabled, the CDI record initially displays only the preferred link (which is the same behavior as the default setting). If there are other eligible links, users can select the Show more link, which appears under the preferred link.
By default, the optional headings do not appear unless configured in the GetIT! Tab1 Labels code table. For information on how to enable the Display All Links functionality and configure the optional headings, see Primo Configuration Options and Primo VE Configuration Options.
Selecting the Show More option displays additional link options that are grouped in the following order if they exist:
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Link in Record links for subscribed content (excluding open access links).
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Link resolver:
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OpenURL links from Alma/SFX.
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OpenURL related services from Alma.
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Link in Record links for Open Access content only.
The following example shows all linking options with the group headings defined:
For information on how to enable this functionality, see:
Additional Links in the PNX
Links that relate to a specific record are stored in the Links section in the PNX. To support the display of additional links, CDI returns the following fields, which are not configurable in the Primo normalization rules:
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linktorsrcadditional – Multiple occurrences of this field are permitted, and each includes an additional direct link from CDI.These links are sorted by provider, which is returned in the $$G subfield. Open access records have the $$H subfield set to free_for_read.
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openurladditional – A single occurrence of this field is permitted. It contains the OpenURL template name and is returned if the link resolver (Alma/SFX) determines that full text links are available for the record.
For additional information about configuring links in the PNX, see the following Primo articles:
Beside the links discussed on this page, CDI also provides backlinks for some CDI providers, which link back to the original record in the source repository. They are part of the metadata provided by the provider of the collection and are included in the Full display links section regardless of customer full text activations.