CDL Opens HathiTrust SFX Target to the broader SFX community

CDL’s Discovery & Delivery group is sharing a way to link to HathiTrust digital resources with other institutions using SFX (the software we use for UC-eLinks). These institutions will have access to the HathiTrust Digital Library “target” on EL Commons CodeShare, a forum hosted by the vendor, Ex Libris, where customers contribute code extensions for the benefit of the SFX community. A benefit of sharing the code in EL Commons is the SFX community can enhance it.

How does the HathiTrust target work?

Libraries using Ex Libris’ SFX scholarly linking who implement the new HathiTrust target will be able to include a link to HathiTrust books in their SFX menu window, as the UC Libraries now do.  Library users will be able to see immediately whether a HathiTrust book is available electronically and if so, link to the full text in the HathiTrust Digital Library.

Background

CDL’s Discovery & Delivery group introduced linking to HathiTrust books using UC-eLinks, UC’s implementation of SFX, in April 2010.  In September 2010, the HathiTrust target was shared with the HathiTrust partner libraries.  Posting the code to EL Commons was the final step in making it accessible more broadly. To date, more than twenty SFX customers have implemented it.

Example of a HathiTrust book link in a UC-eLinks menu window.