Use of Handles at the Naval Postgraduate School

1
Use of Handles at the Naval Postgraduate School

• Lillian W. Gassie
• Head, Technical Services Systems
• Dudley Knox Library, NPS

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The Context

• Unclassified NPS theses were born-digital since
  Sept 2001
• Classified NPS theses to be submitted digitally
  by March 2003
• NPS technical reports produced digitally since
  2002
• Library catalog has about 7,500 records with
  URLs, more added on a daily basis

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The Problems

• Library domain name changed in April 2002 from
  web.nps.navy.mil/library to library.nps.navy.mil
  
• Last month, we manually changed URLs of 245
  reports from the Army War College
• Before 2002 librarians were unable send DTIC
  digital TRs as hyperlinks to patrons, only as
  attachments (huge PDF files were a problem)

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How We Currently Use Handles

• For catalog records (with confidence that the URL
  will not change on us)
• In bibliographies sent to patrons via email

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How We Could Use Handles

• Campus-wide, for standardized and controlled
  access to digital materials and reduced effort in
  URL maintenance
• To be used for publications by various
  departments on different servers
• For multimedia learning objects
• For our digital library supporting a new
  curriculum on homeland security