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Enhancing life-long learning, teaching and research through information resources and services

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‘If it is broke, do fix it’:

Tracking suspect links in SFX with LinkDoubt

Richard Cross

Resource Discovery and Innovation Team Manager

Nottingham Trent University

EPUG-UKI Conference, British Library Conference Centre, London | 13 October 2014

Abstract

When Libraries and Learning Resources at Nottingham Trent

University piloted the ‘report a broken link’ feature in SFX it quickly

became apparent that SFX users were using this option to alert the

library to genuine discovery problems that were not being reported

through other service channels. To better manage the recording,

analysis, tracking and resolution of these ‘broken links’, the library

developed the simple but effective LinkDoubt application, which is

now being used by the Serials team to expedite quick fixes to a

known service irritant. This presentation will explain how the library

approached the development of LinkDoubt, provide a quick

demonstration of the application in action, and introduce some of the

reporting tools the library is now leveraging from the LinkDoubt data

trail.

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Broken links in SFX !?

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Context @ NTU

• Had anecdotal evidence that SFX fails were a recurring concern for

some users

• Asked for evidence, looked for evidence, but was difficult to find in

volume

• Lots of routes for staff, students and librarians to report problems -

but few reports were received

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• Interested to trial ‘broken link’

reporting

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Context Object

Target name Target

URL

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‘Broken link’ report email

Ex LibrisKB team Library team

OptionalAutomatic

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‘Broken link’ report: KB team

Intended to alert KB team to errors and inconsistencies

• Details inaccurate or out-of-dateObject

Object portfolio • Journal ceased publication• Publisher moved host• Site shut down• Site rebuilt and reorganised• Global holdings statement wrong

Target • Package information incorrect• Parser needs to be revised

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‘Broken link’ actions: KB team

Actions KB team could take in response to ‘broken link’ report

KB records • Fix or update entries• Contact publisher• Contact aggregator• Contact supplier of records• Accelerate feed update• Log, monitor and look for patterns

So that’s all sorted, then?

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KB team will not be able to fix

• Incorrect, or out-of-date, portfolio activations

• Incorrect local holdings information

• Authentication problems [remote] (Shibboleth, eZproxy,

OpenAthens)

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• Authentication problems [local]

• Network issues, trips and blocks

• Platforms on which there are no

technical or entitlement failures;

but on which your users do not get

to the material they want

In these cases, the KB team will find nothing to

‘fix’…

…because there’s nothing ‘broken’

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Things that the KB team can

fixed will be done, queued and

packaged for future release…

…but one of your users

specifically asked for this

content (and failed to get it)

now.

So ‘broken link’ is something of a misnomer

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I actively chose to click on this offer of full-text offered by the library - and I’m

telling you now that I didn’t get it

It might be better thought of as the:

report

‘Broken link’ reporting is anonymous…

Simplicity – single click to complete

Simplicity – takes 1-2 seconds at most

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But the library has -

• No knowledge of the ‘reporter’

• No ability to update the

‘reporter’ on resolution

• Anonymity might generate a

range of approaches from

users

Ooh, hello. What’s this then?

<click>

OMG. I did not mean for that to happen.

Undo.

There’s no UNDO.

WHY IS THERE NO UNDO!

I wonder if they’ll know it was me?

I’d better go tell someone…

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Go on then. Just one more.

<click>

That’s funny.

It’s not even broken.

LOL.

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Developing LinkDoubt

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• Status• Diagnosis• Update

- of the ticket- of the problem- on the actions taken

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Pattern of ‘broken link’ submission

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Snapshot – Friday 10 October

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Reports – broken link causes

• Content moved or ‘gone away’ – uncurated, free collections most

vulnerable

• Metadata mismatches between source and target – a key hidden

point of failure

• Delays and drop-outs in the knowledge base chain persist

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Most common solutions

• Updating destination URLs for simple title-level content

• Resolving local holdings mismatches

• Resolving subscription and entitlement anomalies

• Reporting failures to third parties

• Updating target Notes in the SFX menu

• Opportunity to improve problem-solving skills of the Serials team

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LinkDoubt – built with…

• Scripting languages: PHP (server side); JQuery (browser side)

• Database backend: MySQL

• CSS Framework: Bootstrap

• Authentication: CAS

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• Relatively simple, lightweight and

quick to create v1

Future plans

• Richer, clever reporting

• Cross-reference to SFX usage statistics

• Cross-reference to UStat COUNTER statistics

• Tracking broken link persistence over time – to identify target,

collection or platform level actions

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Impact of LinkDoubt

• Still very new, but…

• Clear evidence of user experience of failed SFX links

• Most are not being reported through other routes

• As a percentage of full-text requests, broken links remain fringe

• Clear evidence of added-value through local broken link fixing

• Fixing broken links requires a range of actions and interventions

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Questions and comments?

‘If it is broke, do fix it’:

Tracking suspect links in SFX with LinkDoubt

Richard Cross, Resource Discovery and Innovation Manager

Libraries and Learning Resources, Nottingham Trent University

+44(0)115 848 4878 | richard.cross@ntu.ac.uk