Persistent Links to Library Resources: Overview

Persistent links provide direct and reliable URLs to the library's online resources (articles, streaming videos, ebooks, etc.) that work from on campus or off campus. Many library databases provide persistent links, which might also be referred to as permanent links, permalinks, stable URLs, or share links.

For assistance with finding and using persistent links, please contact the Reference librarians: 503.943.7788, reference@up.edu, or use Library Chat.

• Embed them in Moodle or course syllabi. 
• Be confident that URLs will work for all of your students whether they are on campus or off campus. URLs copied from the browser's address bar are often temporary. Persistent links work for any user on any device.
• Be copyright compliant. For copyright reasons, it is better to link to a library resource than upload the content to Moodle.

Many (but not all) persistent links already include the prefix which allows for off-campus access. However, some persistent links will need to be edited to add the off-campus access prefix.

There are 2 easy ways to tell if a persistent link allows off-campus access:

1. Check to see if the link includes this prefix: https://login.uportland.idm.oclc.org/login?url=
2. The pages on this guide will indicate whether or not persistent link obtained from that resource needs to be edited to allow off-campus access. If the link needs to be edited, the Off-Campus Link Generator is included to facilitate adding the prefix to a persistent link.

Use the Off-Campus Link Generator to get stable and sharable links to items within library databases for adding to Moodle or course syllabi.

Note: this link generator works by adding the off-campus prefix (https://login.uportland.idm.oclc.org/login?url= ) to the beginning of the URL.