PennText is the latest enhancement to full text article access offered by the Penn Library. PennText provides a direct link from a database citation to a variety of services related to the particular citation. These services include the full text of an article, if available, an abstract, or table of contents for a particular journal issue, a direct link to the Franklin catalog record for the print version of the journal, and access to an Interlibrary Loan form.

When searching in a database, look for a button labeled or . Clicking on the button will open a Services Menu that lists available options for full text access to an article and other related services. If full text is not available, you can choose to submit an Interlibrary Loan request for the article on the spot. Just click on the Interlibrary Loan link and key in your personal information. The bibliographic citation for the journal article will have been added automatically.

Implementation of PennText will be in process over the coming weeks. Not all databases will be PennText enabled immediately, and while you will see the PennText button in many of the major databases provided by the Penn Library, they do not all support this new service. PennText requires that a database use OpenURLs. OpenURL is a NISO standard protocol for conveying metadata about a citation to a link resolver. In the case of PennText, the metadata relates to a specific bibliographic citation and provides a means for linking directly to the desired article.

While many of the resources available to the Penn community are OpenURL-enabled, some are not. Among the databases that are not OpenURL-enabled are LexisNexis and Factiva. In time, however, more vendors will enable open urls in their databases and our ability to provide links to full text will increase. A list of enabled databases can be found in the PennText FAQ.

For more information:
Consult the PennText FAQ
Contact us directly