What is TUlink?
TUlink is a service embedded into the Library's research databases--ones you are familiar with such as Academic Search Premier, Sociological Abstracts, ERIC, ABI/Inform and many others. While many of these databases have full text included in them, there are also many that provide only citations and/or abstracts. TUlink is designed to quickly and easily get you from the citation and/or abstract to the full text, regardless of the database in which it is located.How do I use TUlink?
It's easy. Proceed to your research database and conduct a search the same way you always do. Find the citations in which you are interested. If the database has the full text, it will be clearly marked. If the full text is not available you will see our TUlink icon:
Click on the icon and it will open up a new window that displays one or more options for locating the full text:
- If you see an "Article" link (Fig. 1): click on it and TUlink will take you to the full text article for your citation. Do note that you are now in a different database than the one in which you began your search, but your original search system window will still be available.
Fig. 1:
- If you only see links for "Journal" (Fig. 2): take note that the years of availability for the journal are clearly posted in the window. Check to make sure that the identified sources of full-text include the year of publication for your article citation. In some cases, if the article is recent, full-text may not yet be available online.
Fig. 2:
- If the citation you selected was for a book or book chapter, you will need to click on the link to "search the Libraries's catalog" to see if the book is held in one of the Temple University Libraries.
Fig. 3:
Does TUlink Always Find the Full Text I Need?
We do not (and cannot) have electronic access to every journal for every year. In some cases TUlink will find only that we have the journal on paper in the library. In this case you will see a "Journal" link next to "Temple Print & Microform Collection." (Fig. 4) Follow the "Journal" link to get information about the library's paper collection of the journal.
Fig. 4:
In other cases we have no access to the article either electronically or in print. TUlink will give you a link to request the article through interlibrary loan (Temple Libraries will obtain a copy for you from another library) (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5:
What Do You Think of TUlink?
Please give TUlink a try. It is currently in BETA test mode, and will be undergoing changes throughout the fall semester.
We seek your comments, feedback, suggestions, etc.