LinkOut and Library Holdings
Last Updated: October 28, 2003

• Introduction
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Participate in LinkOut
• Get an Account
• Complete Identity Info
• Enter Electronic Full-Text Holdings
• Enter Print Holdings
• LinkOut-SERHOLD
• Upload Holdings
• Choose an Icon
• Provide an Icon
• View the Tutorial: Setting Up LinkOut
• Activate Library Holdings
• Search PubMed for Library Links
• Advanced Features
• Activate Holdings for Multiple Libraries
• Advanced Print Holdings Information
• Call Numbers
• Custom Holdings
• Cancellation
• Add Link
• Additional LinkOut Resources
• Additional Help
• Announcement Mailing List
• Discussion List

LinkOut is a feature of Entrez that provides users with links to web-accessible relevant resources from PubMed and other Entrez databases. LinkOut provides a library with the ability to link patrons directly from a PubMed citation to your online full-text and print holdings. A library may only submit full-text holdings for journals whose providers are LinkOut participants. Libraries can also display their print holdings information in LinkOut.

Frequently Asked Questions for LinkOut Libraries can help your library answer questions about participating in LinkOut.

Participate in LinkOut

Discuss LinkOut with your library staff including the serials department. Libraries in the US can ask their National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) for help. Call the NNLM at 1-800-338-7657 and ask for the LinkOut representative for your region.

When you are ready to sign up, follow the steps below to learn how to participate in LinkOut.

 

Step 1: Get an Account

To get a LinkOut account, send a message to lib-reg@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. State that your library would like to have its holdings represented in LinkOut.

Please use the format:

• Subject: LinkOut Registration Request

Include the following in your message (examples in italics):

• Library Name: Good Medical Library
• Contact Person: Jane Smith
• Email Address: smith@goodmedical.org
• Phone Number: 555-123-4567
• Address: 123 Medical Ave, SomeCity, SomeState 12345

Optional
• LIBID: ABCDEF (For SERHOLD libraries)

In less than a week, we will send you a User Name and Password.

 

Step 2: Complete Identity Info

After you get a User Name and Password, login to the Library Submission Utility. Click Edit Identity on the left sidebar (under Library Information). This will bring you to the Edit Library Identity page. Edit the following information:

• Library Name: Verify your Library Name is listed correctly. Make changes if needed.
• Library/Organization Public Web Site URL: Enter your library web site. If you do not have a library web site, enter the home page for your organization. Make sure the web site URL is publicly accessible, not an intranet or behind a firewall.
• Contact Person's Name and Email at the Library: Verify your Name and Email are listed correctly. Make changes if needed.

Click the Update Identity button. This will bring you to a confirmation page.

Your updated identity information will appear after 12PM US Eastern Time the next business day.

 

Step 3: Enter Electronic Full-Text Holdings

You can prepare for this step by gathering a list of your electronic holdings and the vendor or publisher names. Login to the Library Submission Utility. Click Edit Holdings on the left sidebar (under Electronic Full-text). This will bring you the Edit Library Holdings page.

You can find holdings by Full-Text Provider, Journal Name, or by searching. From each search page, select your holdings information. Make sure you click the Update button before you move to the next page.

You can Update Holdings at any time. Your new holdings information will appear after 12PM US Eastern Time the next business day.

 

Step 4: Enter Print Holdings

For LinkOut-SERHOLD:

If you are an NLM SERHOLD Library, you can display your print holdings information stored in the SERHOLD database. To do this, a library must be a SERHOLD participant, have a six-character LIBID assigned, and maintain the print holdings information in SERHOLD. See the NLM SERHOLD Fact Sheet for more information on becoming a SERHOLD library.

Before registering, make sure you have the following:

• SERHOLD LIBID(s) for your library: You can enter one or more LIBID for your LinkOut account. Holdings information for all the LIBIDs you enter will be shown on one print holdings page.
• Location of the print collection(s): A description of where the print collections are located for each LIBID. Be as specific as you can. This can be up to 255 characters.
• URL to the Library Catalog: This is optional. If included, a link to the library catalog will display with print holdings.

Register LinkOut-SERHOLD

1. Login to the Library Submission Utility.
2. Click LinkOut-SERHOLD on the left sidebar. This will bring you to the Print Holdings via NLM SERHOLD page.
3. Click on the link for Registration.

SERHOLD print holdings information for participating libraries is transferred to LinkOut daily. Changes in SERHOLD will appear in PubMed after 12PM US Eastern Time the next business day. Print holdings information will only be presented for PubMed titles and the ranges of PubMed citations that a library carries. For example, if your library has all volumes of a title except volume 5, the holdings information will not appear in the PubMed citations for volume 5 of that title.

 

For Upload Holdings:

You can upload a text file containing the print holdings information of your library to display in LinkOut. If you choose to use this function, you will NOT be able to use the LinkOut-SERHOLD interface to display your SERHOLD holdings in LinkOut.

Before registering, make sure you have the following:

• A text file of your print holdings for journals in PubMed: Please see below for the file specification.  Note: ONLY PubMed journals should be in this file.
• Location of the print collection(s): A description of where the print collections are located. Be as specific as you can. This can be up to 255 characters.
• URL to the Library Catalog: This is optional. If included, a link to the library catalog will display with print holdings.

Register

1. Login to the Library Submission Utility.
2. Click Upload Holdings on the left sidebar.
3. Click on the link for Registration.

Print Holdings File Submission

1. Login to the Library Submission Utility.
2. Click Upload Holdings on the left sidebar.
3. Click on the link for Print Holdings File Submission.
4. This will allow you to upload a text (.txt) file.
Specifications of the file are:
• No larger than 1.5 megabytes
• Format of a line:  ISSN|ESSN|Medline abbreviation|Start year|End year|Start volume|End volume|Acquisition status|
• Required 1 - one of the following: ISSN, ESSN (ISSN for the electronic version), Medline abbreviation
• Required 2 - one of the following: Start Year, Start Volume
• Required 3 - acquisition status of value: 4 for ongoing subscription, 5 - no longer received
• Optional: End year and End volume, if Acquisition Status is 4
• If both year and volume are entered, their quantity must be the same
• If any element is omitted, insert the delimiter "|" only
• To represent a gap in holdings for a title, use one line to represent each continuous run. For example, your library has the journal ISSN 1234-5678 starting at 1991 volume 1, but 1995 volume 5 is missing. The following are the lines:
  1234-5678|||1991|1994|1|4|4|
  1234-5678|||1996||6||4|
5. Additional examples for holdings patterns
• current subscription of Am J Cardiol from 1997:
  0002-9149||Am J Cardiol|1997||||4|
• current subscription of Am J Cardiol from volume 66:
  0002-9149||Am J Cardiol|||66||4|
• current subscription of JAMA from volume 262 year 1990, but volume 280 is missing:
  ||JAMA|1990|1998|262|279|4|
  ||JAMA|1999||281||4|
• Phy Ther that is no longer received, with back years for 1995 to 2000:
  0031-9023||Phys Ther|1995|2000|||5|
• Phy Ther that is no longer received, with volumes 60 to 70 and volumes 75 to 79, but missing volumes 71 to 74:
  0031-9023||Phys Ther|1980|1990|60|70|5|
  0031-9023||Phys Ther|1995|1999|75|79|5|
6. Holdings statement will be constructed according to the year and volume information you provide.  Examples:
   ||JAMA|1990|1998|262|279|4|
   ||JAMA|1999||281||4|
   will display as:
   262-279,281- (1990-1998,1999-)
   
   0031-9023||Phys Ther|1980|1990|60|70|5|
   0031-9023||Phys Ther|1995|1999|75|79|5|
   will display as:
   60-70,75-79 (1980-1990,1995-1999)

Files uploaded are processed daily in the early morning hours. The result will appear in PubMed after 12PM US Eastern Time the next business day.

 

Step 5: Choose an Icon

You will be asked to provide an icon to represent your library. Your marketing department or IT staff may be able to help you with this. Your icon could be your institution's logo or simply a statement saying "Full-text provided by [Library Name]" or "[Library Name] Print Collection".

Icons should:

• Be the recommended 100 by 25 pixels (maximum is 150 by 35 pixels).
• Look like a button.
• Have an outline or borders.
• Not use a white or transparent background.
• Be in one of the recommended image formats: GIF, JPEG, or PNG.

Your icon name should be simple, such as the name of your library. Please use letters from the English alphabet, and whole numbers. Do not use special characters.

Icon name examples: libft.gif; libprint.gif, mylib.jpg

 

Step 6: Provide an Icon

There are two ways to provide Electronic Full-text and Print holdings icons to LinkOut. Icons can be stored at your library at a publicly accessible URL, or uploaded to NCBI.

Please Note: The ability to provide a print icon is only enabled after you register your SERHOLD print holdings in the Submission Utility.

1. Login to the Library Submission Utility.
2. Click Provide Icon on the left sidebar (under Library Information).
3. This will bring you the Provide Icon page. You will have the option to enter a publicly accessible URL, or to upload an icon.
   1. URL: This option allows you to store your icon at your site. Store your icon(s) in a publicly accessible area on your web site, not an intranet or behind a firewall. LinkOut will check daily for a new icon.
   2. Upload: This option allows you to upload the icon. If you choose this method, you need to upload the icon to LinkOut if any changes are made.
4. Click the Proceed button.
5. This will bring you to a confirmation page.
6. All updates will appear in PubMed after 12PM US Eastern Time the next business day.

Note: If you do not provide an icon, LinkOut will provide a default icon:

Activate Library Holdings

Once you have updated your identity and holdings, your holdings can be activated in PubMed. To do this, use the following URL:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=medlib
Enter your LinkOut User Name instead of "medlib".

When a patron connects to PubMed from this special URL, citations in your library's holdings will display your library icon in Pubmed's Abstract and Citation displays. A patron can then click on your library icon to access the full-text or print holdings information.

If your library has links to electronic full-text as well as the print holdings, patrons will see two icons, one for the full-text link and the other for the print holdings.

Your holdings information and icon can also be activated from the LinkOut preferences of Cubby.

Once your holdings have been activated, they will have the same access restrictions as your publishers' resources currently have. For example, if access to an article requires a password, the patron will still be asked for the password. Or, if access to an article is based on the IP address of a library, patrons will only have access to that article from a computer within the IP range of the library.

You can limit a search in PubMed to citations that contain your library links. To do this, enter the following search in PubMed:

loprovmedlib [filter]
Enter your LinkOut User Name instead of "medlib".

Advanced Features

Activate Holdings for Multiple Libraries

You can activate the holdings information for two or more libraries. This means the holdings icons for each library you activate will display in PubMed on the Abstract and Citation. Both libraries need to be LinkOut participants.

For example, if you want to display holdings for two libraries, medlib and mylib, use the URL:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=medlib,mylib
Enter the LinkOut User Names instead of "medlib" and "mylib".

 

Advanced Print Holdings Information

Call Number Submission

For LinkOut-SERHOLD:
If your journal collection's call number information is useful to your patrons, you can supply this information via the Call Number Submission function. To do this:

1. Login to the Library Submission Utility.
2. Click LinkOut-SERHOLD on the left sidebar. This will bring you to the Print Holdings via NLM SERHOLD page.
3. Click on the link for Call Number Submission.
4. This will allow you to upload a text (.txt) file. This file should be:
• No larger than 1.5 megabytes
• In the format: LIBID|ISSN|tu|Call Number
• Have Call Number's up to 50 characters

For Upload Holdings:
Libraries that upload their holdings via a text file can supply a call number as a part of that file. The call number can be attached after acquisition status, i.e. the line format will become:

ISSN|ESSN|Medline abbreviation|Start year|End year|Start volume|End volume|Acquisition status|Call Number|

 

Custom Holdings

For Upload Holdings:
Libraries that submit their print holdings in a text file can also add a custom holdings statement for a journal after Call Number. The format will then be:

ISSN|ESSN|Medline abbreviation|Start year|End year|Start volume|End volume|Acquisition status|Call Number|Custom holdings statement|

If you just want to provide custom holdings statement without call number, still provide the delimiter "|" for call number, e.g.:

ISSN|ESSN|Medline abbreviation|Start year|End year|Start volume|End volume|Acquisition status||Custom holdings statement|

 

Cancellation

For LinkOut-SERHOLD and Upload Holdings:
Both LinkOut-SERHOLD libraries and Upload Holdings libraries can withdraw print holdings information from LinkOut at any time. Log in to the Library Submission Utility and click either LinkOut-SERHOLD or Upload Holdings on the left sidebar. Click on Cancellation and follow the on screen instructions.

 

Add a Link

For LinkOut-SERHOLD and Upload Holdings:

Add a Link to the Location Field

It is possible to add a link in the print holdings Location field. For example:

To view library holdings <a href="http://www.medlib.org">Click here</a>

Your users will see the link for "http://www.medlib.org" on "Click here" when they view your print holdings in PubMed.

Please Note: For step by step instructions on how to do this, see the Add Link section of our tutorial.

 

Enhance Links in the Location or Library Catalog Fields

You can also enhance either the Location or Library Catalog URL by passing the MEDLINE abbreviation or ISSN from PubMed to your catalog. To do this, add any of the following terms to your URL:

&lo.issn; - ISSN with a hyphen.
&lo.issnl; - ISSN without a hyphen
&lo.jtit; - MEDLINE abbreviation of the title.

Example of what you could enter in the Location field:

<a href="http://www.medlib.org?MedAbbr=&lo.jtit;+&lo.issnl;>View this title in the Medical Library catalog</a>

Example of what you could enter in the Library Catalog URL field:

http://www.medlib.org?MedAbbr=&lo.jtit;+&lo.issnl;

Please Note: For step by step instructions on how to do this, see the Add Link section of our tutorial.

 

Additional LinkOut Resources

LinkOut provides links from PubMed and other Entrez databases to a wide variety of online resources. This includes biological databases, consumer health information, research tools, and more. View Sample Links from Entrez databases for more information.

Additional Help

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) maintains a Library LinkOut Survival Guide with additional information on participating in and promoting LinkOut for libraries. US libraries may also call the NNLM at 1-800-338-7657 for assistance.

Announcement Mailing List

The library-linkout announcement mailing list will provide news and information about LinkOut. This mailing list is for announcements only; please do not send mail. The list of subscribers is kept private.

Subscribe by Email:
Send an email message with subscribe in the Subject to:
library-linkout-request@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
You can leave the message blank.

Subscribe on the Web:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mailman/listinfo/library-linkout

Discussion List

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM), Greater Midwest Region hosts a LinkOut listserv. Anyone can subscribe.

Please Note: This list is not moderated by NCBI. Please write to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov to send questions or comments to the LinkOut team at NCBI.

To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listserv@uic.edu with the command:

SUBSCRIBE LINKOUT-L Marilyn Monroe
Replace "Marilyn Monroe" with your name.

Please send questions and comments about LinkOut for Libraries to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov