Skip to Main Content

Creating Stable Links to Items in Databases

Creating Stable Links (Permalinks)

Permalinks/Stable Links are an easy way to add links to library database content into your Moodle/Brightspace courses. As an added bonus, using these links helps keep you in compliance with copyright law and database licenses, as well as provides the library with accurate journal use statistics for renewal decisions in a way that downloading full text articles from databases and then uploading them into your Moodle/Brightspace courses does not.

All databases - including OneSearch - should provide you with a permanent URL that will link back to the article. You should not use the URL located in your browser bar as this is often a temporary link that will not load properly if you try to reuse it. If you need assistance finding the permanent link in a database, please contact the Research & Instruction team

Note: Some publications, such as The Harvard Business Review, do not permit us to include permanent links on course management systems without paying an additional fee. Please contact us if you encounter that problem.

Which database should I use?

  • Identify the publication (journal, magazine, etc.) in which the article was published 
  • On the library’s homepage, select the “Journals” tab in the center of the page
  • Search for the journal/magazine title (not the article title) 
  • This will lead you to a list of databases through which LNDL subscribes to the journal/magazine  
    • Results might include the term “Print Periodicals Collection”; this will not lead to a permalink 
  • Note the date ranges of access next to the database links and select a database with the correct date range 
  • Once you are in the database, find the article. Typically, you will need to select the year and issue before finding the item title in the database. 
  • Follow the permalink instructions pertaining to this database in the list on the left side of this page