The SilverLinker Database will be available at the end of August. Trials began in June. According to a company representative, customers who subscribe to the SilverLinker Database during the charter period, from now until the end of 1998, will have access to all links that are made available through 1999. They expect the file to grow to over a million links by the end of 1999. Many publishers are actively collaborating with us as they recognize SilverLinker as an enhancement of their online journals, rather than competition.
Most alternatives offer just one secondary database in a subject or none at all.
SilverPlatter does not keep track of customers' access and licensing arrangements. The SilverLinker Database contains all the links that have been negotiated by SilverPlatter. Customers are then provided with a software utility so they can disable the links to publications that they do not have arrangements to access. Martire noted that the service offers value to customers in a number of key ways. Customers are gaining access to full text from a variety of publishers through a single search on databases they are accustomed to searching.