Lean Library provides your patrons with seamless access to library-owned resources in related but distinct ways.
- Access: When patrons land on a site that appears in your list of e-resource domains in the Lean Library Dashboard, the Access feature will prompt them to log in for seamless access to that website.
- Alternatives: The Alternatives feature provides your patrons with access to resources your library owns, even if they've landed on the resource in a location your library doesn't provide access to. If your library doesn't own that resource, but it is available as an open access resource, we'll direct the patron there instead. If you don't own the resource and it's not available as an open access resource, we can provide patrons with on-demand ILL/DDS forms. In short, Lean Library will try to connect your patrons with free and legal versions of resources.
Occasionally you may find that Lean Library is showing you an Alternatives pop-up where you expect to see an Access pop-up. Below you will find a diagrammatic breakdown of the logic that Lean Library runs through to decide which pop-up to display.
Access and Alternatives Logic
Please note that the below graphic is not a comprehensive breakdown of the logic of the Access or Alternatives features. Some steps have been simplified, and others have been omitted entirely. The purpose of the diagram is to display the core steps the extension takes to decide whether it shows an Access or an Alternatives pop-up simply and concisely.
Please click the image to see it in higher resolution.
You will notice from the above that the extension always gives priority to the Alternatives feature, rather than the Access feature. This is by design. In the majority of cases this will connect patrons with library resources in the most efficient and straightforward way, but if you ever identify resources where that's not the case you can block the Alternatives feature from working on that site, which will give priority to the Access feature. For more info on this, please read the following article: Block Pop-ups on Domains : How to set it up?
Detecting a unique identifier and gathering metadata
We utilise the meta-tags present in the source of a page to detect unique identifiers. The meta-tags are hidden from view. We gather data from our internal database, which relies on Crossref. We then create an OpenURL request.
Your link resolver response
Once the OpenURL request has been submitted, your link resolver will provide either a positive (i.e. "yes, we have this) or a negative (i.e. "no, we don't have this") response based on your holding information.
Checking if a user is already on the site
If a user is not in the expected full-text location, the extension will display an Alternatives pop-up to direct them towards it. If a user is already in the expected full-text location, Lean Library will check whether this domain appears in the e-resource domains list in your Lean Library Dashboard. If it does, patrons will be prompted to "Get Access". If it does not, it will display a "full text achieved" message.
Checking if an open access version is available
If the OpenURL response is negative, then we will try to connect patrons with an open access version of the resource, if one exists. If there is no open access version, the extension will then check if the ILL/DDS service is activated in the Lean Library Dashboard.
Lean Library derives information on whether or not a resource is open access entirely from third-party services like Unpaywall, Core, and DOAB. If you're seeing an open access message you believe to be erroneous for any reason, please visit this article for information on next steps: The Alternatives feature isn't showing me what I expect to see
ILL/DDS Alternatives
If the ILL/DDS service is activated in your Dashboard, then the extension will show the patron this form. If not, the extension will lastly check if the domain appears in the e-resource domains list in your Lean Library Dashboard. If it does, patrons will be prompted to "Get Access". If it does not, the extension will not pop-up and no further action will be taken.
I still think I'm seeing the wrong pop-up
If you have read through the above and still think that the extension is behaving in a way you wouldn't expect, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the team and we'll be able to support you in identifying the root cause of any such issues. Please include as much information in your message as possible, including any unique identifiers for resources, URLs, screenshots and screen recordings, and any other information that may help our team.