Customize databases and full text
Learn how to use WorldCat Admin to customize databases and full text for FirstSearch.
The following features in the administrative module let you customize databases and full text:
- Database Access: This feature lets you do the following:
- Make individual databases available or unavailable for searching.
- Set a default database.
- Make full text from individual databases available or unavailable for viewing, including full text available through per-article purchase.
- Make information needed to create direct article access links available or unavailable by database.
- Full Text Delivery Method: This feature lets you specify whether users can view and print full text online in FirstSearch as well as send full text in an e-mail message.
- Full Text Password: This feature lets you do the following:
- Require users to enter a password to view full text from some or all full-text databases in your account.
- Select the databases that require the full-text password.
- Provide a brief message that FirstSearch displays to users when prompting for the full-text password.
- Require users to enter the full-text password to view full text available through per-article purchase.
- Custom Topic Areas: This feature lets you create your own database topic areas.
- Topic Areas: This feature lets you specify which OCLC-defined topic areas and which of your custom topic areas are displayed to users when they list databases by topic in the FirstSearch service.
Database Access
Description
The Database Access feature is described in the following table.
| purpose | Use Database Access to:
Databases. All of your FirstSearch databases are listed alphabetically in the Database Access feature. Searching. Each database that you can make available for searching is listed (with Citation appearing in the Database Type column) to let you control whether users can select it for searching. Full Text. Each database containing full text is listed a second time (with FT added to the database name and with Full Text appearing in the Database Type column) to let you control whether users can view full text from the database. Therefore, you have the following options for each database containing full text:
Direct Article Access. For some databases containing full text, you control the availability of information needed to create direct article access links. If the information is available, you can add links on your library's web pages that lead directly to the full text of journal articles available in FirstSearch. This lets your users click a link to access the full text of a journal article and then return to your library's web pages without seeing other FirstSearch screens. This direct article access supports electronic reserves or reading lists that you might provide on your web pages. If you make the information available for creating direct article access links, the Link Pickup button appears in FirstSearch with the full text of articles from the database. You can click the button to access the Link Pickup screen. The screen contains the information needed to create a direct article access link. If you do not want users to create direct article access links, you can turn availability on when you want to get information for links and turn it off when you finish. |
|---|---|
| location | Click the Authentication/Access section of the main menu, then click Database Access in the sidebar menu to go to the Database Access screen. |
| default setting | Availability for searching. The default setting in the administrative module is on for all of your FirstSearch databases. When you add a database to your FirstSearch account, the default setting for the database is on. You can set a default database for your users to search. To set a default database in FirstSearch:
Availability of the full text for viewing. The default setting in the administrative module is on for subscription full text databases and off for per-search and monthly billing full text databases. When you add a full text database to your FirstSearch account, the default setting is on if it is a subscription database and off if it is a per-search or monthly billing database. Availability of information needed to create direct article access links. The default setting in the administrative module is on for subscription full text databases suitable for direct article access and off for per-search and monthly billing full text databases. When you add a full text database suitable for direct article access to your FirstSearch account, the default setting is on if it is a subscription database and off if it is a per-search or monthly billing database. |
Available values
The values that you can select for each database in the Database Access feature are described in the following tables. To review settings and plan changes for this feature, go to its location in the administrative module and print the screen.
| available for searching: available values for each database | |
|---|---|
| On (checked) | A database is available for users to search:
|
| Off (not checked) | The database is not available for users to search. |
| full text available for viewing: available values for each full text database | |
|---|---|
| On (checked) | Full text from a database is available for users to view:
|
| Off (not checked) | Full text from the database is not available for users to view. |
| information available for creating direct article access links: available values for each full text database suitable for direct article access | |
|---|---|
| On (checked) | Information needed to create direct article access links is available from a database:
|
| Off (not checked) | Information needed to create direct article access links is not available from a database. |
Full Text Delivery Method
Description
The Full Text Delivery Method feature is described in the following table.
| purpose | Select Email Only as the Full Text Delivery Method by placing a check in the box if you want users to view full text only by sending it to themselves from FirstSearch in an e-mail message. |
|---|---|
| location | Click General in the sidebar menu of the Authentication/Access section of the main menu to go to the General screen that contains Full Text Delivery Method. |
| default setting | Off (not checked) |
Available values
The values that you can set for the Full Text Delivery Method feature are described in the following table. The setting for this feature applies to all databases.
| On (checked) | If this option is checked, users can send full text in an e-mail message but cannot view or print full text in FirstSearch. Consider this option if you want to limit the time that users spend in FirstSearch or if printers are not available for printing full text in FirstSearch. |
| Off (not checked) | If the box is not checked, users can view or print full text in FirstSearch and also send full text in an e-mail message. |
Full Text Password
Description
The Full Text Password feature is described in the following table.
| purpose | The optional full text password helps control access to full text in the FirstSearch service. If you require that users enter a password to view full text, a screen prompting for the password appears when a user clicks a full text link in FirstSearch. If the user enters the password correctly, the full text appears. You have the following options regarding the use of a full text password:
|
|---|---|
| location | Click Passwords in the sidebar menu of the Authentication/Access section of the main menu to go to the Passwords screen. |
| default setting | Full Text Password. The default setting is No full text password. Full Text Password Required. The default setting is off (not required) for each full text database. When you add a full text database to your FirstSearch account, the default setting for the database is off. Full text password message. The default setting is No message. |
Available values
The values that you can set for the Full Text Password feature are described in the following tables. In order to have a full text password, you must also select at least one full-text database for which the password is required. To review settings and plan changes for this feature, go to its location in the administrative module and print the screen.
| No full text password (blank) | Your users can view full text without entering a password. |
| Password | Your users must enter the full text password to view full text from all or some full text databases. You must also select the databases for which the password is required. OCLC suggests the following guidelines for new passwords:
|
| full text password required: available values for each full text database | |
|---|---|
| On (checked) | The password is required to view full text from the database. FirstSearch will prompt the user to type the password before the user can view the full text or send full text in an e-mail message. If a full text password is required, one or more databases must be checked. If you want the password to apply to full text available through per-article purchase for a database but not to full text available through other methods, check the box in the Per-Article Purchase column and uncheck the box in the All Full Text column for the database. |
| Off (not checked) | The password is not required to view full text from the database. FirstSearch will not prompt the user to type it. |
| Full text password message | |
|---|---|
| No message (blank) | FirstSearch does not display a message to your users when it prompts them for the full text password. |
| Message | FirstSearch displays the message to your users when it prompts them for the full-text password. Length. The message must contain fewer than 256 characters and spaces. Single paragraph. The entire message is displayed to users in a single paragraph even if you type it in multiple paragraphs in the administrative module. Example. An example of a full text password message is Please check at the Reference Desk about access to this article. |
Custom Topic Areas
Description
The Custom Topic Areas feature is described in the following table.
| purpose | Use the Custom Topic Areas feature to create your own database topic areas. You can create custom topic areas to supplement or replace the OCLC-defined topic areas available when users select databases by topic. Some libraries use this feature to create topic areas similar to the subject categories found in other services familiar to their users. When you create a custom topic area, it is automatically added to the display seen by your users. Use the Topic areas feature to control which custom topic areas are displayed in FirstSearch. The list of all databases is another database selection method for users. You cannot customize it in the administrative module. All of the databases covered by your FirstSearch account are included except any that you make unavailable using the Database Access feature. |
|---|---|
| location | Click Custom Topic Areas in the sidebar menu of the Interface Display section of the main menu. |
| default setting | No custom topic areas. |
Available values
The values that you can set for the Custom Topic Areas feature are described in the following table. For each topic area that you create, you must specify a topic area name and one or more databases to include in the topic area. You can create any number of custom topic areas but remember to avoid overwhelming your users with a long list of them.
To review the OCLC-defined topic areas containing your FirstSearch databases, go to this feature and view each topic area. If you have previously used the administrative module to add or remove topic areas displayed to users, first use the Topic Areas feature to make sure that the OCLC-defined topic areas are displayed.
| Topic Area Name | Each custom topic area name can have up to 30 characters and blank spaces. |
| Databases Included | In each custom topic area, you can include 1 to 12 of the databases covered by your FirstSearch account and specify the order in which they are listed. Each database can be included in any number of topic areas. If you use the Database Access feature to make a database unavailable to your users for searching, the database is not displayed to them in any OCLC-defined topic area or custom topic area. When new databases are added to your FirstSearch account, be sure to add them to appropriate custom topic areas. |
Topic Areas
Description
The Topic Areas feature is described in the following table.
| purpose |
Use the Topic Areas feature to specify which OCLC-defined topic areas and which of your custom topic areas are displayed to users when they list databases by topic in the FirstSearch service. Also use it to specify the default topic area that users see first. You cannot change the names of OCLC-defined topic areas or the databases included in them. However, you can remove OCLC-defined topic areas from the list of displayed topic areas or change their positions in the list. Another database selection method for users is the list of all databases. You cannot customize it in the administrative module. All of the databases covered by your FirstSearch account are included except any that you make unavailable using the Database Access feature. |
|---|---|
| location | Click Custom Topic Areas in the sidebar menu of the Interface Display section of the main menu. |
| default setting | Default Topic Area. The General OCLC-defined topic area is the default. Topic Areas Displayed. The OCLC-defined topic areas are displayed. |
Available values
The values that you can set for the Topic Areas feature are described in the following table.
| Default Topic Area | You can choose any of the topic areas displayed as the topic area that users see first. |
| Topic Areas Displayed |
You can choose any number of topic areas for display to users but remember to avoid overwhelming them with a long list. You can also specify the order in which topic areas are listed. If you use the Database Access feature to make a database unavailable to your users for searching, the database is not displayed to them in any OCLC-defined topic area or custom topic area. If all the databases in a topic area are unavailable to your users, the topic area is not displayed to them. |