A permalink is a link that directs to the permanent web address of an electronic resource, such as a journal article, eBook, or digitized archival item.

Permalinks are important because:

• Permalinks enable students, faculty, and staff to access licensed resources when working off-campus, because the permalink redirects them through Single Sign-On where they can authenticate as Columbia users.
• Permalinks are more stable than website URLs, which become outdated quickly and are not guaranteed to work for every user in every browser.

Permalinks are especially helpful when directing users to a resource on a database, because databases create unique URLs depending on the pathway a user took to find a particular resource that cannot be replicated for another user.