Cambridge University Libraries now provide the LibKey tools to help ensure members of the University are connected easily and securely to library content.
LibKey Discovery
LibKey Discovery – you may not even have noticed this one it’s making linking that easy: – it provides the “Download PDF” links in article records in iDiscover. If you’ve logged into iDiscover already (see here) then it will be just 1 click from “Download PDF” to the PDF downloading to your browser. If you’ve not logged into iDiscover, then you will need to authenticate via Raven just for the first PDF download (for all sites in the chain of links behind the scenes to know that you are a bona fide University member). But thereafter you won’t need to authenticate again – regardless of the website or platform or publisher you are linking to for any PDF. This is neat, and saves you time.
It’s also a lot more reliable because it’s using DOIs and PMIDs to link rather than the metadata in the OpenURL links (further down the record) which can break if there’s just the slightest bit wrong with them. LibKey Discovery’s also displaying links for you to connect to the issue the article was published in, which can often be useful to see related articles in the issue.
LibKey Nomad
LibKey Nomad is a new browser extension which complements Lean Library. Nomad links you to full text articles when available from Cambridge University Libraries wherever you are studying or researching on the Internet. You can be in Google, Google Scholar, a publisher website, a subject gateway or an abstracting & indexing service, or a social media site, LibKey Nomad detects when you have access and seamlessly connects you to full text – with only one Raven authentication step for any one browser session, regardless how many different sites you visit.
LibKey Nomad also offers open access alternatives, if full text access isn’t available, and an open access version is. And in Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Wikipedia, you will also see in-line LibKey Nomad “Download PDF” links that will connect you smoothly to the Cambridge University Libraries’ subscription full text access to the article or work cited. The extension directs you to the website where you would have subscription access to an article. Sometimes you might land on a different site where you don’t have access from the libraries, but LibKey Nomad will redirect you to the site where you should have access. LibKey Nomad also offers open access alternatives, if full text access isn’t available, and an open access version is.
LibKey Nomad doesn’t include linking for e-books just now and so we recommend both Lean Library – that does – and LibKey Nomad.
LibKey.io
We’re also recommending LibKey.io which resolves any DOI or PMID to deliver the options for access to an article, and niftily generates an LibKey.io URL that you can share with academic colleagues in other institutions on social media or in your web pages – and the benefit here is that this URL will work with those colleagues’ institutions’ authentication systems to seamlessly connect them to the article if it is subscribed by their institution. In others words, this Libkey.io URL does for article sharing with colleagues across the world what LibKey Discovery “Download PDF” links are doing for you as a Cambridge University member. Your colleague needs to be in an institution also using LibKey which more and more academic libraries are.
Electronic Collection Management 