Persistent Links: Getting Started

A Persistent Link is a web address or URL that can be used to directly access a book, an article, streaming media, or a list of search results in a library database. When you click on an GCU Library link in your online classroom, you are using a Persistent Link.  You may want to use these links to share articles of interest with your classmates or to post in your online discussion boards. They are the most reliable way to access a resource again.

A persistent link may not be compliant with APA or other citing and formatting guidelines.  Refer to the Library's Citing Sources Guides for information on what URLs or DOIs to include when you are citing references.

This guide provides instructions for creating Persistent Links in most of the databases available through the library.

Note: You will still be prompted to log in to access articles when using a persistent link.

Why not copy the URL in the address bar of the web browser?

This may work in some cases, but not all.  Many databases have a timeout function built in.  Because of this, each time you access the database a Session ID is assigned to your search.  If you copy and paste the URL from the address bar in your browser, this URL will stop functioning once your session has timed out. 

One way to identify if a link is a session link is to look for the letters SIDfollowed by a series of numbers and/or letters in the URL.  If you see that, you are looking at a session link.

DOIstands for Digital Object Identifier.  A DOI is similar to a Persistent Link. It is a way that you can link directly to a document found in a database. Not all online documents have a DOI.  Some of the library databases use DOIs in persistent links.  In some cases, some articles in a database will have a DOI while others will not.

More information on DOI's can be found here http://www.doi.org/ .