After you install Information Portal, you can let users search for items in your library catalog using Information Portal. However, your library may want to do more extensive customizing of your Information Portal searching. You can customize these things in Information Portal:
• | Search Result Displays. These determine how the results of a search look on an Information Portal searching page (for example, how many elements of information are on a browse display and what the list of authors is labeled). Your library may not want to use the default displays delivered with Information Portal. You can change how browse, summary, full bib, item, and other search results should display in Information Portal. |
• | Redirected Searches. These determine which data elements inside a display can be made a hyperlink or “redirected” on a search page. When users click the redirected element, Information Portal performs a new search. You choose which elements are hyperlinked and what kind of new search Information Portal performs when users click the hyperlink. (For example, your library may want to let users click the author’s name on a full bib page to see a browse list of authors, or your library may want to add hyperlinks to Internet resources from the full bib page.) |
• | Sorts. This determines whether sort options sort results in ascending or descending order. It also determines whether you have sorting relevancy turned on or off. (Relevancy in search results means that those results with the most number of relevant search terms, or occurrences of search terms, in the MARC bib record are usually the most relevant to a user, or the results that the user will most likely want to view.) |
• | 856 Tag as it Functions in Information Portal. The 856 tag contains URL information from the MARC bib record. If you want users to be able to view and click the URL in Information Portal, you must set up a display to show the tag and make it a hyperlink. You can also configure the behavior of the hyperlinks in the tag and define how Information Portal displays the hyperlinks. |
• | Quick Searches within Information Portal. These help you maximize your users’ searching capability. You can create quick searches that you can organize into categories, similar to the searching categories on search engine sites, such as Yahoo. (For example, you may want to have a recommended reading list or a group of upcoming events. You may also want to create quick searches and group them by Art, Science, Music, Literature, and so forth.) |
• | Quick Searches for External Sources. These are single URLs that let users perform a specific search (such as an author keyword search) or display a particular full bib using your Information Portal. You can enter one of these URLs on any of your library web pages, or you can give these URLs to an external source to enter on their web pages. |
• | Other Z39.50 Library Connections (Broadcast Searching). Your library may want to let your users search other libraries’ databases (or broadcast search) using the Z39.50 protocol. You can set up these connections and their indexes, then customize the displays, result types, and redirected searches for each Z39.50 library. You can also create universal IDs, update MARC maps, and create Z39.50 lookup codes for item displays. |
• | Authenticating users. If you have a corporate portal or library web site that requires your library staff to log in and the site has a link to Information Portal, you can use the same login credentials to automatically authenticate to Information Portal without requiring library staff to re-authenticate. This way, you have one login for your library staff. |
• | Information Portal Interface. This is the look and feel of the Information Portal searching pages that your users see. (For example, your library may want to change the color of the set of tabs at the top of the searching pages, add tabs and sub-tabs with different functions, or reorder the tabs and sub-tabs.) You can also change things that appear to be coded into the software, such as text, images, preferences, and other variables. |
You can access most of the tasks in this chapter from the Customize tab in the Information Portal Administration tool:
If you have the necessary technical experience, you can customize the Information Portal interface directly in XSL stylesheets or by using a CSS editor to change text attributes. (For more information, see the Information Portal User Interface Customization Guide.)
SirsiDynix does not support any changes that you make directly in the stylesheets or with a CSS editor.
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