Introduction to ZPORTAL Prepared by Houeida K. Charara Electronic Resources Librarian LAU Libraries ©2010

2 What is ZPORTAL? ZPORTAL is a library portal or federated search engine. It offers to the LAU libraries the chance to layer a single / federated search environment across its catalogue, its e-resources and approved external websites, offering end-users an internet search engine feel, but with the safeguard of searching 'professional approved' content

3 In other words: ZPORTAL allows you to: Cross-search multiple resources at the same time Use one single search interface Display results in a single presentation

4 Why to use ZPORTAL? (1) Integration of widest possible collection of resources thanks to choice of compatible data harvesting tools Non-searchable resources integrated into 'one stop shop' for users Works with authentication services to control access to the most appropriate resources

5 Why to use ZPORTAL? (2) Efficient and seamless access to full text without further authentication Focused searching as resources are profiled to users' specific needs Options for naive and advanced users, both with intuitive user interface Range of personalization features including saved searches, saved lists, filtering, sorting and de-duplication

6 Resources currently searchable Some Open Access Resources may be added to ZPORTAL in the future Selective websites are covered

7 Signing In The first screen that appears in ZPORTAL is the Standard Search You MUST “sign in” in order to search the LAU Libraries resources

8 How to sign in In the Sign In screen enter your LAU username (e.g. jsmith or john.smith) and password You know you are signed in when a “Sign Out” option in the left pane is available

9 Standard Search Screen after Sign In Name of the user

10 Profiles and Collections Profiles are groupings of databases or catalogs, so called Collections You can select or deselect individual catalogs/databases within these profiles for searching User “private” Profile Library “shared" profiles

11 Standard Search On the Standard Search Screen select your profile, then enter your keywords in the search box To submit your search click on GO Try to be very specific; use several keywords to narrow down your search Don’t use general keywords

12 Advanced Search This search is recommended ONLY if you have a certain field to be excluded or included otherwise the Standard search is preferable

13 S earch Results Your search results will be displayed in a brief record format in the Search Results Screen. (Results are returned in the order of the fastest collection) Clicking on Details will bring up a full record DON’T click on Get it!!! Click on HTTP icon to have the fulltext

14 Search Status It is very important to check the search status because NOT all resources are available at all times (due to overload, system crashes, etc.) Error means database was NOT searched Unsupported (Advanced Search) your search strategy is NOT supported

15 Record Details Click on Electronic Resource to have the fulltext 2 Options are available HTML and PDF according to the database N.B. If the field Electronic Resources is missing = NO Full text available

16 Journal/Article Finder To find journals that are not available in the searchable collections, i.e., Other Collections

17 Personalization features Sorting Filtering

18 Personalization features De-duplication Don’t use big numbers: Merge 50 records at a time Saved searches 3 options are available: Edit, Re-run and Delete

19 Building a new Profile You can create your own individual profile if none of the profiles provided are suitable Select the Search profiles link from the My Account menu, then click on create

20 Useful information “Standard search” searches all the fields including the full text which explains why some records may look irrelevant Use quotation marks for exact phrase searching Hits are retrieved according to the fastest collection, therefore sorting, filtering, etc. are needed ZPORTAL is NOT a database, results will be taken from the online databases as usual Saved lists and Search history will be cleared after signing out Check your Search Status regularly

21 ZPORTAL BENEFITS USERS BY: (1) “SAVING TIME – Users don’t have to search across a variety of interfaces to find the information they need RELEVANT INFORMATION – Users are guided to appropriate resources which provide only quality information IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO CONTENT – Users can go directly to full text, PDFs and e-journals IMPROVED QUALITY OF DATA – All information has been filtered to provide only quality data

22 ZPORTAL BENEFITS USERS BY: (2) UNDERSTANDING RESOURCES AVAILABLE – Users are only presented with collections relevant to their research or study PERSONALISED FEATURES – Users can save and reuse searches in addition to setting up groups of favorite resources to cross-search EASE OF USE – Users only have to learn how to use one interface and remember one password”.

23 Less advantageous No Arabic support Security: It involves the opening of some ports outside the university firewalls End-user overwhelmed with # of hits Continuous maintenance and update Unable to cover all licensed databases Unable to use each database’s features and capabilities to the maximum

24 Need more info? Contact the Electronic Resources ext N.B. ZPORTAL benefits (slides 21-22) are taken from FDI’s ZPORTAL brochure for Academic Libraries.