easy_access

on this page

• overview
• article flow
• book flow
• acknowledgements

overview

This repository contains code for a project of the Brown University Library to make getting articles and books easier.

It contains code for the web pages users see when they click links for articles and books which contain an OpenUrl.

It also contains code for the handling of article-delivery (easyArticle); for books easyAccess (invisibly to the user) hands off to an easyBorrow project.

easyAccess is, essentially, the Library's OpenUrl link-resolver, using, behind-the-scenes, the SerialsSolutions 360Link api.

article flow

• from information in the openurl, the item is determined to be an article, and all subsequent pages the user sees will be branded 'easyArticle'

• a check is made on the openurl to see if the item is specifically for a journal (as opposed to an article). This is rarely the case, but if so, the openurl request is redirected to Brown's 'search.serialssolutions.com' url. This is old inherited logic; we could likely improve this.

• if still in flow (almost always the case), a check is made on a Brown's 360Link 'openurl.xml.serialssolutions.com' api

  • if a direct link to full-text is found, easyAccess used to take the user right to that url, but a decision was made to instead have the user land at an easyArticle page showing all links to full text
    • there is some logic that affects the order links are shown, based on librarians defining which sources are better than others
    • note: all serialsolutions online links begin with https://login.revproxy.brown.edu/login?url=the_destination_url which triggers shib login
    • if the user has clicked a link from new-josiah to get to easyAccess, that openurl may contain an EDS full-text link. If so, that link is also listed after the other full-text links.
  • if a direct link to full-text is not found, but the 360link api indicates we have electronic access to that issue of the journal, the user lands at a page with a link to the journal and a note that the article is available online, but that the link is not directly to the article, and some additional searching will be required on the publisher's website
  • if the 360link api lookup shows that we have the article in print, that information will appear on the landing page, whether or not there are also online links
  • if the 360link api has no online link information about the item, and no print information about the item, the user lands at a page with a link to 'Request from another library'

• if still in flow, and the user clicks the 'Request from another library' link, a confirmation 'Submit' button appears; if clicked, the request is submitted to ILLiad (our interlibary-loan service) on behalf of the user, and the user receives a confirmation email with tracking info.

• see 'Article Examples' on the easyAccess home page

book flow

• from information in the openurl, the item is determined to be a book, and all subsequent pages the user sees will be branded 'easyBorrow'

• a background lookup is done to see if we have it, in a circulating location, or have a similar copy

• if we have the exact book, in a circulating location, the user is shown a page to that effect, with a link to the catalog record for the book

• if we have an alternate version (say, an ebook), but not the exact book the user has requested, the user is shown a page to that effect, with catalog links to the alternate versions, as well as a 'Request via easyBorrow' button for the specific book the user is looking for

• if the user clics the 'Request via easyBorrow' button, info about the book, the patron, and the request is temporarily stored in a db

• separate easyBorrow code detects the new request, and, depending on a few factors:

  • searches for the book in BorrowDirect (our consortial loan partner), and requests it for the user if it's available
  • submits the request to ILLiad for the user if necessary

• see 'Book Examples' on the easyAccess home page

acknowledgements

Not shown in the commit history is the fact that this entire project was implemented by Ted Lawless from 2012 through 2015. It has made the work of thousands of Brown University students and faculty vastly easier.