May 19, 2005
Boston, MA
Ex Libris announced today the immediate availability of a new set of tools to enable GoogleTM Scholar to display OpenURL links to SFX®. With these tools, institutions with the award-winning SFX link server can register with Google Scholar to have their SFX links displayed in Google Scholar search results. Once registered, the institutions electronic library holdings are made available to Google Scholar so that the Google Scholar search results will clearly indicate when electronic full text is available.
The new SFX tools result from recent work undertaken by Ex Libris in collaboration with both Google and a number of SFX customers who participated in the Google Scholar OpenURL pilot project. By tying local content into Google Scholar, the new tools address research needs expressed by many SFX customers.
For libraries that do not yet enjoy the benefits of a link server, Ex Libris is pleased to announce ScholarSFX™. This groundbreaking service enables libraries—for free—to create customized links based on their institution’s electronic journal holdings and display these links in Google Scholar search results. Patrons affiliated with the institution will then be able to link from the Google Scholar results to articles that are available through local institutional subscriptions or for free on the Web. ScholarSFX includes links to thousands of such free journals.
Oren Beit-Arie, Ex Libris chief strategy officer and co-creator of the OpenURL with Herbert Van de Sompel, commented, Ex Libris is pleased to extend its innovative linking technology to offer the groundbreaking ScholarSFX service. Now a wider community of users will be able to benefit from context-sensitive linking based on their institutional affiliation. Google Scholar offers a significant breakthrough in making scholarly information available to end users. By facilitating access directly to a librarys own collection of electronic holdings, ScholarSFX takes this a step further.
For additional information on SFX for Google Scholar and ScholarSFX, please visit us at http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/sfx_scholar.htm.
About Ex Libris:
Ex Libris is a leading worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centers, and researchers. ALEPH, the Ex Libris integrated library solution has been installed at over 1250 sites in 52 countries. MetaLib®, the information portal for library collections and SFX, the content-sensitive linking solution for heterogeneous electronic resources in the scholarly information environment, have collectively been purchased by more than 831 institutions in 36 countries. DigiTool, a solution for the construction of digital collections, and Verde, the new electronic resource management (ERM) system, round out the Ex Libris product suite.
