A couple of years ago, we looked at link resolvers in the context of a
larger ERMS purchase. We found that the link resolver was only as good
as the data that feeds it.

I was able to test one system for the entire process; including title
list loads. I found that the data available via publicly accessible
title lists was sometimes less than clean. This means the data needs to
be easily updatable.

Again, we were approaching the link resolver from the perspective of the
larger ERMS purchase. Data integrity was high on my list of requirements
for the new system including the link resolver.

We were a Serials Solutions customer. We trialed Linksource, Gold Rush
and reSearcher. We had presentations from Swets and SFX. We chose
reSearcher for a variety of reasons that I have outlined on various
listservs.

Being able to make changes to a local copy of the global knowledgebase
is extremely simple. That is a two edged sword. On the positive side, we
have link that is more accurate than before. The negative side is that
there is more work on a department that is 1.75 people. (In the past,
our librarians brought very few issues to us for correcting, as we did
not have as much control or input with our vendor.)

Would I change my choice, after living with reSearcher/CUFTS for almost
1.5 years? The answer is NO. There are things that each system did well.
I do miss the overlap analysis from Serials Solutions. The functionality
that we gained, for the way that we work, outweighs the minor misses by
reSearcher/CUFTS. (It helps that SFU has been very responsive in
rewriting code to make the product work better for us.)

Daniel Hoyte
Senior Library Systems Technician
Chapman University Leatherby Libraries
(714) 532-7745
hoyte@chapman.edu
AIM/Yahoo IM: chaphoyte
"$DO || ! $DO ; try
try: command not found"
 --Yoda

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Jason Dezember
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 2:00 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Link Resolvers

Hi,

We're looking into link resolvers and I wondered if anyone could provide

any feedback on how satisfied you are with yours.
We currently use Serials Solutions 360 core for our a to z list, so are
considering their 360 link product. We're also looking at
LinkSource. Any comments or suggestions?
--

Jason Dezember

Public Services &
E-Resources Librarian
Fisher Library
John F. Kennedy University
100 Ellinwood Way
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 USA

http://library.jfku.edu
Phone: 925-969-3112
jdezember@jfku.edu <mailto:jdezember@jfku.edu>