Some of the Ohio Web Library vendors provide MARC records that can be loaded into a library's catalog, so their online resources will appear in catalog search results. These MARC records will contain a link to the resource in the 856 field of the record (subfield u); however, for people outside the library, these links will not allow access to the resource, because they do not pass through the user authentication associated with our statewide subscriptions.

To fix this, the URLs in the 856 fields must be modified in two ways:

  1. Add this to the beginning of each link:
    https://auth.oplin.org/?url=
  2. Replace every "&" in every link with "%26" (percent-encoded ampersand)

For example, a link to Consumer Reports in the MARC record downloaded from EBSCO might have "https://search.ebscohost.com/direct.asp?db=f5h&jid=%22CRP%22&scope=site" in the 856u tag, and that would need to be changed to "https://auth.oplin.org/?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/direct.asp?db=f5h%26jid=%22CRP%22%26scope=site".

One easy way to make these modifications is to use Terry Reese's MarcEdit tool (free download). Open the MarcEditor, open the file of MARC records downloaded from the vendor, and from the "Tools" menu choose "Edit Subfield Data." In field 856, subfield u, look for field data https:// and replace it with https://auth.oplin.org/?url=https://. Repeat this process, looking for & and replacing it with %26. Save the edited file and it should be ready for importing into your catalog.

The vendors below currently provide MARC records for Ohio Web Library databases:

EBSCO
A large selection of MARC record files can be downloaded from the EBSCO Administrator interface. (If you don't know your login credentials, contact OPLIN Support.) Navigate to "Database Title Lists" and click on the "MARC 21" tab.
World Book
World Book provides some very general MARC records from their Training & Support site.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning MARC records require access to the LinkedIn Learning administrator interface. Contact OPLIN Support for assistance.