An Easy Method for Producing Search Result Documents (in Word) in Which Each Record Contains an Open URL Link Resolver Link

I have developed a 1.5 minute process that produces a list of search results in a Word document in which each numbered record contains an open URL link resolver link. Sample search result documents are available here.  I would love to have other librarians test this method and let me know if they find it useful and/or if they see a need for changes.  I'd also love to hear about better ways to provide search results that contain open URL link resolver links, especially methods that are useful when sending results to patrons who don't use citation managers. 

Please note:  The links included in this post will take you to my library's "Zotero Tips and Training: Search Result Formatting" webpage, but you do not have to use Zotero to use the method for formatting search results that is described below.

  

Required Tools:

• An institutional license for an open url link resolver. 
• Link Resolvers that have been tested and have worked 
• Serial Solutions link resolver
• an ExLibris-produced link resolver

• Link Resolvers that have been tested without complete success
• WebBridge

• Microsoft Word
• Revised Word Macros (macros and revision instructions available here).
• A freely available, citation manager account (Zotero or Mendeley) or a RefWorks account (legacy version).  
• The custom output style for your citation manager (available for download here).  I could produce a custom style for the new RefWorks or EndNote if asked (I wouldn't have time to do so until late November 2019).

Time Required:

• Less than 1.5 minutes to format a set of results.
•  About 10-15 minutes for initial set-up (one time only).

Set-up and Document Formatting Instructions available here.   

• Formatting a set of search results is an easy, 1.5 minute, 5 step process: 1) Create a bibliography in Word using the provided custom output style and your citation manager,2)  click a macro button in Word, 3) select a table column, 4) complete a "replace all" step (Ctl-h Windows, Cmd-h Mac), and 5) click a second macro button in Word.  More details and screenshots are available in the "Set-Up Instructions and Document Formatting Instructions" document available here.

Background:


The use of my library's librarian-mediated search service nearly trebled in the two years after we began providing results via RefShare, the record sharing feature of the legacy version of RefWorks.  In this format, each record contains an open URL link resolver button.  Since the legacy version of RefWorks is no longer the focus of RefWorks' developers' attention and the new version of RefWorks does not, currently, provide all the features we need, we have began to look for alternate ways to send search results that contain open URL link resolver buttons/links.