The use and usability of SFX: context‐sensitive reference linking

Abstract

SFX is an XML based product designed to inter-link electronic resources with other resources in context-sensitive manner. SFX was first developed at the University of Ghent by Herbert Von de Sompel and has been released as a commercial product by Ex Libris. Use statistics garnered from SFX's statistics module since the implementation July of 2001 are discussed in the context of an academic research library environment. The results from usability testing conducted at Washington State University are reported. These usage statistics demonstrated a pattern of increasing use and exceptional use from FirstSearch databases. INTRODUCTION:SFX creates dynamically generated sets of links to library resources and other electronic documents based on the metadata in electronic documents. While the initial focus of the development of this standard was on bibliographic metadata, metadata from any type of document could conceivably be used, as suggested by SFX's initial creator Herbert Van de Sompel (Sompel and Beit-Arie, 2001a). SFX and its competitors work by transferring context sensitive metadata from a source database via NISO's proposed OpenURL metadata standard (OpenURL, 2002) into a Link Resolver. In this case, the Link Resolver is on an SFX server.It creates a set of links to a variety of resources based upon an established set of rules and locally established thresholds to generate a set of options in the form of hypertext links. These links are known as extended services and are loaded into an SFX services menu. These extended services direct the users to electronic documents known as targets based upon the initial document's metadata and thresholds set on the library's SFX server. Thresholds control the appearance of particular types of extended services on the generated SFX services menu. Thresholds are series of parameters for specific targets to control which services appear using factors such as year ranges, volumes or issues (see figure 1). This is a process referred to as context sensitive linking. Context sensitive linking allows the institution to control the library users' interaction and guarantee that they receive access to all of the potential resources.

Print versus Electronic Journal Use in Three Sci/Tech Disciplines: The Cultural Shift in Process

“…According to usability studies of SFX done at WSU, 8 the linker was difficult to find or use in the databases most heavily used by the disciplines covered in this study. Shortly a er these data were collected, the tool was renamed Find It (instead of using the default name SFX) in the hope that this would indicate to patrons what the bu on or link would do.…”

Electronic Resource Availability Studies: An Effective Way to Discover Access Errors

“…Later, as librarians became aware of usability research methods, they applied these techniques to test patron access to electronic resources. To note but a few examples from this ample literature: Cockrell and Jayne (2002) asked students to find eresources using library systems; Cummings and Johnson (2003) observed students using OpenURL linking; Wrubel (2007) offered a concise overview of e-resource usability testing; O'Neill (2009) considered how best to instruct patrons in OpenURL linking based on usability results; next generation catalogues (Majors, 2012) and discovery services (Asher, Duke, & Wilson, 2013;Fagan, Mandernach, Nelson, Paulo, & Saunders, 2012;Williams & Foster, 2011) have been studied thoroughly; Kress, Del Bosque and Ipri (2011) conducted a study to find out why students placed unnecessary ILL requests; and Imler and Eichelberger (2014) investigated how confusing vocabulary acts as a barrier to full-text. Considered as a whole, this usability research demonstrates librarians' awareness that the problems leading to full-text nonavailability are complex, arising from both library systems and human error.…”

The library systems market: a digest of current literature

“…Once a set of search results has been returned, the user is taken to the most “appropriate” copy of the full resource by means of extended linking services that create links dynamically rather than relying on hard‐coded URLs. This context‐sensitive linking is enabled by use of the new OpenURL standard (Breeding, 2003; Collins and Ferguson, 2002; Evans, 2001; Sun Microsystems, 2003; Walker, 2001b), and products such as SFX, LinkFinderPlus and Vlink can operate independently of the ILMS software used (Cummings and Johnson, 2003; Grogg and Ferguson, 2003; Kochtanek, 2001; Vogt, 2003).…”