Metalib Search Tips and Known Issues/ Problems
Picking a Search Method
Searching
Viewing results
Sorting results
Finding the article
Saving results
Creating your own database/quickset lists
Saving searches & setting up alerts
Exiting MetaLib
Known issues/problems
Help
Picking a search method
- Use the Navigation Toolbar to choose a search method.
- Use Quick Search to perform a Google-like search on multiple databases. Your search will be run in the databases listed in the General Resources quickset: Academic Search Premier from EbscoHost, Wilson’s OmnifileFT Mega, the Cofrin Library catalog for books, and Proquest Newspapers. Click on the quickset name to see the resources included. You can also create your own quicksets.
- Use Find Databases to find a specific database.
- Use Find e-Journals to see a list of journals subscribe to electronically. Use
to see where the full-text is available. - Use Custom Search to find and search one or more databases grouped by subject
- Clicking on the
symbol next to the database name will show you a description of the database as well as very important search tips for that database.
d
Searching
- Clicking on the
symbol allows you to do a search in that database using the Metalib interface. If you don’t see the the only way to search it is to click on the title to link out and search in the “native” or usual interface. - Choosing the “native” interface allows you to use any of the special search features the database vendor may provide, and may be a better approach for complex searching.
- Use ? to search for variations of a word. Example: wild? will search for wild, wildlife, wilderness, etc.
Viewing Results
There are 3 ways to view your results:
- Results List/Table view shows the title of the article/book, author, year and database. It allows you to see more records on the screen at a time.
- Brief View displays results one after another.
- Full View shows the most information, one record on the screen at a time.
Sometimes only a subset of all the results are shown:
To retrieve more records, go to the last record and click on 
.
- When you click on , some, but not all of the original results will appear in your new result list. The system is redoing the search and again pulling up the first things it finds in no particular order. New citations will, however, be in bold print.
- If you use Quick Search and want to see the results grouped by database, click on “Do more with Custom Search” (just above the results) and then click “view results by databases.” Click on a database name to see the results in that database.
- The “external” field in a record links you to the full-text of the article. In some cases, the full-text of an article is in the Full View.
Sorting Your Results
Use the Sort by drop-down box to sort by rank, title, author, year or database. Note: sorting is not available for every database:
Finding the Article
Click on to see a list of options for getting the full-text article. Sometimes it will be available in one of our full-text databases. Sometimes it will be available in print in the library (use the Cofrin Library Catalog link). Other times we won’t have access to the full-text but you can choose the ILLiad link to order it from another library.
Saving Your Results
- To save a record so you can view it the next time you go into MetaLib, login if you have not already done so (use the login link in the upper right corner). Click on the folder icon to add it to My Space. To view the record later, go to My Space, My eShelf.
- To save a record to a floppy disk or personal drive, click on the title to go into the full record. Then click on the floppy icon
.
Campus popup-blocker software may prevent this initially—follow the directions on the screen to proceed:
Caution: records are downloaded in formats that use software applications that the campus does not provide, so we recommend that users not try to download records. Save to “My Space” instead.
Creating Your Own Database List
- If you haven’t logged in yet, do so by clicking on the login link in the upper right corner.
- Use Find Databases or Custom Search to see the databases available. Click on
to choose all of the databases you want in your personal list. The icon will change to 
- Click on My Space on the navigation toolbar; then click My Databases underneath:
- The databases you chose will appear on the Clipboard on the right side:
- You can save the databases on the clipboard by clicking on the
on the Clipboard side of the screen. Give the set a name. Alternatively, if you want to add databases to an existing set, choose the set you want from the left window and click on the 
to add the database to that set. - To give the set a description, click on the
. - Your database sets appear on the My Space/My Databases screen as well as the Quick Search screen.
Note: only databases with the magnifying glass icon can be searched from the Quick Search screen. Databases without the
can only be searched one-at-a-time by going into the native interface (click on the database name).
Saving Searches and Setting up Alerts
MetaLib allows you to save searches so you can re-run them at a later date. You can also run a search automatically, by setting up an alert. Alerts can be run at an interval you specify (e.g. daily, weekly) and the results of the search can be emailed to you. To save a search or setup an alert, select the databases you wish to search and enter your search terms. After you click Go and get search results, click on Custom Search and then Previous Searches. Click on the plus sign icon to save it:
Now click on My Space in the toolbar, then click on My History underneath. The searches you saved during the current sedssion will be listed. To re-run the search, click on the query. To set it up as an alert, click on the bell icon.
Exiting MetaLib
Always exit MetaLib when you are done by clicking on the Exit link in the upper right corner.
Known Issues/Problems:
General
- Not all of our resources/databases can be searched in MetaLib. These are the resources that do not have the magnifying glass icon next to the resource name. We have set these up as “link-only” resources. That means you can see them in Find Databases and in the various categories in Custom Search, but you must click on the title and search it in the “native interface,” just as you used to do. As more and more vendors make their databases OpenURL compliant, we will be able to offer more resources that are completely searchable within MetaLib. This is not only more convenient because you can search with the same interface for all of the resources in Metalib, but you can choose several resources to search simultaneously. Link-only resources can not be searched simultaneously with other resources.
- Not all fields searchable in the native interface are searchable in MetaLib. Sometimes you must use the native interface (i.e. click on the database name to search it as done in the past) in order to get more precise results.
- MetaLib is not fully compatible with screen readers.
- Mac users will find that Safari works better than IE with MetaLib.
- Supported browsers are IE 5.0 (Windows only), Netscape 6 or higher (not totally clean) and Mozilla.
Specific
- Sorting isn’t possible in every database.
- Sorting results by title: in some databases the system does not ignore initial articles like a, the, etc.
- When searching multiple databases, the system does not retrieve all of the results at once—it brings back a portion of all the results, regardless of date or relevancy, although usually it seems to be the newest records in a database.
- Search results when searching multiple databases are in the order in which they were retrieved, and are not necessarily in any meaningful order. So, you may need to sort if it’s allowed. OR, in order to find the most relevant citations you may need to request that the system go and get more of the records in your search results list.
Help
For further help, contact the Reference Desk at 920-465-2303 or refdesk@uwgb.edu.