Perma links provide "a reliable, unbreakable link to an unalterable record of any [web] page you've cited." This allows readers to review a cited web page as it looked when an article was being prepared for publication, taking a potentially transient source and making it stable.
Link rot (and “reference rot”) happens when you cite to an online source that later disappears or changes. It's a big problem, especially for academic scholarship and judicial opinions, which depend heavily on citations to stable sources that readers can access. For example, a study conducted by researchers at Harvard Law School found that more than 70% of the links in a sample of law journals and 50% of the links in Supreme Court opinions no longer work.
Links should only be created for open web sources that do not have a stable URL* (i.e. websites, blogs, working papers, and so forth). This excludes licensed databases and sites that keep content behind a paywall.
Perma.cc Terms and Conditions 5(a) states “that the User Submitted Content both (1) is freely available on the Internet to the general public without paying, registering with the website, or the like and (2) is cited in a legal or scholarly work;”.
This means that items from databases like Bloomberg, HeinOnline, Lexis, ProQuest, Westlaw, etc. should not be included. See a librarian with questions regarding what is or isn’t permitted.
* Stable URLs may be called persistent or permanent links. They might be retrieved from a link that says something like "get bookmarkable URL" or begin doi:.
Any individual can request a perma.cc account to save ten free links as a trial and choose whether to continue with a paid subscription.
Through the Drake Law Library, student publications and faculty can be affiliated with an archiving organization to get rights to create links associated with that group. The library is responsible for ensuring all users understand and follow perma.cc policies. As such, the library will provide training to any individual requesting access rights before granting those rights.
Drake Law School scholars who would like to request a new archiving organization should contact Karen Wallace to discuss.
Drake affiliates should not create their own User IDs. Your organizational manager or library personnel will add new editors from within Perma. The user account should only use their Drake email addresses. The new member will receive an email from info@perma.cc to activate their account, like the sample shown below. Once your receive the email, click on the link to set your password. (If the confirmation email does not arrive, be sure to check your clutter/junk/spam folders.)
Once logged in, you'll see the Perma dropdown menu in the upper right corner of the screen. From this menu you can navigate to your links or the tools and settings pages. The My Links page gives you quick access to all of the links you've created. As a member of an organization, you'll also see all the links associated with your organization. From this page, you can annotate links and organize them into folders according to your organization's preferences. Step-by-step instructions are on the Creating a Link and Annotating and Organizing tabs.
If you no longer want a user to be affiliated with your organization, you can remove them from your organization. Any links they created while affiliated with the organization, will remain active and still be able to be managed by others affiliated with the organization.
Follow steps 1-4 above to access the Manage Users options.
Click the remove button next to their name and confirm that you want to remove that user's organizational affiliation.
Workflow Chart
Additional Details
Re Step One:
It is safe to use an existing session of Google Chrome if you were already working in it; however MS Edge, Internet Explorer, or Firefox may not be used.
Re Step Two:
The simplest way to navigate would be to copy and paste the URL provided by the author into the address bar. However, any method that gets you to the page you wish the archive will suffice. Note: Perma.cc preserves only the page displayed. If subpages also need to be preserved then the processes will need to be repeats for each page cited by the author.
Re Step Three:
The Perma.cc extension button can be found in the upper right hand corner of Google Chrome as shown by the arrow in the first picture. The second picture is an enlarged version of the symbol.
Re Steps Four-Six:
Make sure the folder name under the “Create Perma Link” button matches the folder tree you want to store the link in as illustrated by the arrow.
The Note by Robert Larson is under production in the Fall 2017, thus the folder is named “Larson 2017”
If you forget to name to the folder or need to change it just use the same process but instead select “Rename”.
Re Step Seven:
The “Create Perma Link” button can be found next to the bar displaying the URL of the original page as illustrated by the arrow.
Re Step Nine:
Click within the page before pressing Ctrl + A. After pressing Ctrl + P the choice of printer is displayed just below the print button on the left hand side of the screen. If “print to PDF” is not selected press the “Change” button and select it. Then press print.
General:
Many Perma.cc links will be “internet” sources but not all. Be sure NOT to create perma links for licensed content.
* Do not create Perma.cc links for pages that already have a permanent URL and/or if the source is readily available in print. Do not create links for electronic sources that are not freely available to anyone on the web. (This includes content from Westlaw, Lexis, Hein, and all other licensed databases. Please ask a librarian if you have any doubt about whether it's okay to create a perma.cc link.)
Creating Perma links while cite-checking is not recommended. This is because Perma.cc creates a different link every time you enter a URL, even if it’s the exact same URL. You can easily end up with a lot of links to the same place.
If an author creates their own Perma.cc link, this means the information has already been archived, although you will not be able to organize the links into folders without re-creating them. Practitioners and scholars outside of the legal field most likely do not know about Perma.cc. If you want an author to archive their own links, please be ready to talk them through the process.
You can create perma links for multiple URLs at once using the Create multiple links tab.
Private links are still permanent, but they can only be seen by the organization that created the link.
Some sites will only let their content be created as a private link. This feature might still be a useful way to document the resources you consulted, but it will not be something your readers will be able to see. Instead, someone not logged in to your perma.cc account would see a message that the record is private and cannot be displayed.
If you encounter errors archiving an American Legal Publishing page, try the following:
Tips curated by Tove Kloving at Washington University Law Library & Nick Szydlowski at Boston College Law Library.
Links need only be created for open web sources that do not have a stable URL (i.e. websites, blogs, working papers, and so forth). This excludes HeinOnline and Westlaw. Also, do not archive sites that keep content behind a paywall.
URLs with a DOI or Handle are stable, and there is no need to create a Perma link. If you’re not sure if the web page should be vest, check the URL. Is it long and complex? If so, there is greater chance the page will be unstable over time.
Example of a DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22120
Example of a Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hncbnw
► Some sites may not archive completely. Common reasons are:
Note, too, that the content of links on the page are not captured automatically.
► Blogs
When creating a Perma.cc link for a blog post, always use the URL for that specific post, not the URL for the Blog itself. Even if the blog post appears in its entirety on the Blog’s main page, overtime it will move down and then off that page.
Options for finding the link for a specific blog entry will vary:
Note: Sometimes a pop-up add can obscure information when the screen shot is taken.
►Newspapers, Magazine Articles
Often, a website will only display the first portion of an article on the initial Webpage. Do not rely on the small preview window when determining if the entire article has been archived. Look for a “Share” button that is not dedicated to a specific social networking site. Click on “Share” to see if a link is displayed. If not, you usually will be offered a long list of social networking sites. Look for an option not associated with a social networking site, such as “Copy Link” (make sure you have selected the entire link).
If the PDF opens in your browser, you can copy the URL from your browser. If it opens in a PDF reader, go back to the page with the link, copy the link location. For Firefox on PC: right click the link and select “copy link location”. For Internet Explorer on PC: right click the link and select “copy shortcut”.
If you are having trouble creating a perma link for a page, you can try saving the page as a PDF and then using the direct upload option to make that PDF accessible.
You can start the process in one of two ways.
1. If you have already created a permalink that does not look right, you can edit it (within the first 24 hours) to directly upload the file:
Click on the Edit link details link to see the record you just created.
This will bring up the following screen:
Click Browse under Upload file to add a saved file. This will become the content people see when they visit the permalink. You can also edit the other fields as needed.
2.Start from scratch by entering an empty URL in the Create Perma Link box. Then you will get this error message:
Click on upload your own archive to be able to upload the PDF.
You can annotate any link accessible to you. On the Create a New Perma Link page, open the folder to see a list of all of the links in it, as shown below. 
Click on the bold title of the link you want to edit (not the standard URL or pema.cc URL). The item will expand to display more details about the link. From this view you can edit the title, add notes, move the link to another folder, and view other metadata about the link:
Subsection d encourages archiving Internet sources, "but only when a reliable archival tool is available. For citations to Internet sources, append the archive URL to the full citation in brackets.” Perma.cc is considered a reliable archival tool, and the rule includes the following example:
Thanks to the University of New Mexico School of Law Library for giving us permission to modify their original perma.cc research guide page.