A c t i o n f o r L i b r a r i e s — J a n u a r y 2 0 0 4

In Reference...

Edited by Brandie Baumann

SilverPlatter Offers 24x7 Technical Support Access
OVID now gives SilverPlatter platform users access to technical support services 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, for issues such as logging in or accessing SilverPlatter. The new technical support phone for the U.S. is (844) 277-OVID. Other international office phone numbers are also available. For a complete list of numbers, go to OVID's home page, www.ovid.com/site/support/24HourSupport.jsp?top=34.

OCLC FirstSearch Customizing Tip
You can now make your FirstSearch interface stand out with customized graphics, text and colors, or display logos and images of your choice. FirstSearch users can also customize how their library's name appears; add a consortium or group name; or choose a different color palette.

To add images or customized text, go to firstsearch.oclc.org/admin?firstpg=YourLibrary and enter your FirstSearch administrative authorization and password on the administrative module login screen. You will be taken directly to the Interface Display >Your Library Settings >Your Library area in your FirstSearch administrative module. To make changes:

Enter the URL for a logo or image you would like to display in the top left area of the interface under "Logo Image File" in the box labeled "Upper Left Logo." The default is the FirstSearch logo, but you may replace this or delete it.
Enter text you would like to display next to this logo or image in the box labeled "Upper Left Text."
Repeat for the upper right area by entering a URL in the "Upper Right Logo" box and/or editing the text in the "Upper Right Text" box. The default for the latter is your library's name as generated by OCLC's billing system.
Click "Save Changes."

In order to change the color palette, go to firstsearch.oclc.org/admin?firstpg=CustomColors.

Enter your FirstSearch administrative authorization and password on the administrative module login screen.
You will be taken directly to the Interface Display > Your Library Settings > User Interface Colors area in your FirstSearch administrative module, where you can select the color palette of your choice, or customize colors.

If you would like to make these changes to the look of the FirstSearch interface, but don't have access to your library's FirstSearch administrative module, please forward this message to the person at your library who can make the changes.

Questions? Online help is available on the site, or contact Karen Graham at BCR (kgraham@bcr.org).

OCLC Adds FirstSearch Functionality
Holdings information, as recorded in Local Data Records (LDRs) in the OCLC Union List service, is now accessible from serials records on the Initial Holdings screen and on the Display All Libraries screen in all ISSN- based FirstSearch databases. This information saves users time and makes it easier to locate articles in the collections of their own and others' libraries, because they now can check the volumes and years owned in the holdings display.

Users also will be able to go directly to lists of owning libraries by clicking on links labeled Libraries in brief records in ISSN-based FirstSearch databases. These links streamline the process of viewing the holdings information since users no longer have to go first to the Detailed Record.

Users of the Biology Digest database can now take advantage of the same level of functionality as is available in other FirstSearch databases. Users may link to library holdings worldwide, access the library's Web-based catalog to see the shelf status of an item and use OCLC ILL to request an item (both features must be enabled in the administrative module). In addition, users are now able to view available full text from other FirstSearch databases, access hotlinked author and subject fields and rank search results by relevance and date. There are also several new indexes to assist users of the Expert search interface to improve the precision of their searches.

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