Once you have found an article of interest in a library article database, you will need to be able to share that article with your classmates. This involves the use of the Permanent URL.
Normally you would simply copy and paste the URL that appears in your browser's address bar to point someone to a web document:
However, the URL that see here is unique to your specific search and cannot be replicated or used again by someone else. You can very easily see this by trying to copy, paste and share one of these URLs. It just won't work.
All library article databases resolve this problem by providing a permanent URL that will always take you to the record for a specific article. (Business Source Complete refers to this link as a Permalink).
When you click on an article from the results list, you are presented with the full database record for that article, including links to the full-text if it is available. The Permalink icon appears on the right-hand side of the record screen:
When you click on the Permalink icon, the link appears in a labeled box above the body of the article. This is the URL that you will need to copy and paste in order to share access to the article:
If the article you want is not available through Business Source Complete but is accessible from another library database, you can link to that article as well. The other databases may not use the term 'Permalink' but most if not all will offer a permanent URL that you can copy and paste.
This example from a news database called Nexis Uni has a "Link to this page" feature for its articles:
Simply uploading the PDF of an article seems like an obvious and possibly easier option. However, there are several reasons why linking to the article in the database is preferred.
Copyright
Although you can link to an article in a database or e-journal and remain copyright compliant, you cannot necessarily take that same article, copy it, and upload it to your course site without permission from the publisher. Failure to follow copyright law can result in fines for the department and for the University.
Database Usage Statistics
When you provide a link to the article, the database keeps track of how often it is being accessed. That means that instead of having just one access by the student who originally found the article, there will be stats for all of the other students who access and read it. These usage stats are significant because they help the library judge how useful a database is to campus.