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Creating an Electronic Reading List

Linking directly to electronic articles

Any article can be made electronically accessible through Electronic Reserves, but it is also possible to link directly to the library’s full text subscriptions from a Web page or WebCT by creating a link to an FindIt (SFX) window. A direct link to FindIt (SFX) is the most accurate and effective way to direct students to electronic full text of articles.

  1. Find a citation.
  2. If you found the citation in a database, click on the FindIt (SFX) button. If you have a citation from another resource, use Citation Linker to generate an FindIt (SFX) menu.
  3. The first link on the FindIt (SFX) menu will indicate the availability of full text. If a full text link is available, check it for accuracy. If there is no full text available, go to Electronic Reserves.
  4. Once you have checked the accuracy of the full text link, return to the FindIt (SFX) menu. The second to the last option on the FindIt (SFX) menu will be “Save citation information.” Click on the save citation link, and a “Capture Citation” window will open that includes a citation to the article and the URL for the FindIt (SFX) window.
  5. Copy the entire URL. URLs for FindIt (SFX) windows are very long, so be sure to copy the entire URL from
    http://condor . . . to the end of the window.
  6. Insert the URL into Web page or Web CT.

Example of citation linked to FindIt (SFX) screen:

Onwuegbuzie, AJ. (2004). Information search performance
and research achievement: An empirical test of the Anxiety-Expectation
Mediation model of library anxiety. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 55(1), 41-54.

Example of URL for FindIt (SFX) screen:

http://condor.library.colostate.edu/sfx_local?&atitle=
Information+search+performance+and+research+achievement%
3A+An+empirical+test+of+the+Anxiety-Expectation+Mediation+mode
l+of+library+anxiety&auinit=AJ&aulast=Onwuegbuzie&date=2004&
epage=54&issn=1532-2882&issue=1&sid=ISI:WoK&spage=41&
stitle=J+AM+SOC+INF+SCI+TEC&volume=55

Books

Linking to library electronic books is not recommended. Although these resources are available online, they can be checked out like a print book, and only one person at a time is allowed access. A better alternative is to place relevant chapters on Electronic Reserves, which will insure that all of your students will have online access to the appropriate chapters. More information can be found at: http://lib.colostate.edu/reserve/