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Searching library resources means configuring the Citations Helper to work with one or more metasearch engines. For Sakai 2.4, the Citations Helper supports the SIRSI SingleSearch and Ex Libris MetaLib metasearch engines.
If your Sakai users require access to one metasearch engine, please follow the Single Instance Setup Guide to properly configure the Citations Helper for use with one metasearch engine.
If there are groups of Sakai users that require access to different metasearch engines (you are in a consortium-like setting), please follow the Multiple Instance Setup Guide to properly configure the Citations Helper for use with multiple metasearch engines.
There are two ways to configure the Citations Helper to work with one or more metasearch engines: Static Configuration or Dynamic Configuration. The major difference between the two is how you need to authorize Citations Helper users:
- if all Citations Helper users require the same login information for only one metasearch engine and all Citations Helper users have access to the same set of search categories and databases, you should use Static Configuration.
- Example: I have created a set of commonly used search categories and databases at my library that I would like all Citations Helper users to use. This set consists of General Interest, Science, Literature, Arts and Engineering categories and their related databases. My institution only uses Ex Libris MetaLib and there is a single username and password that the Citations Helper will use to access MetaLib.
- if various groups of Citations Helper users will use different login information for your metasearch engine or various groups of Sakai users will have access to different search categories and databases, you should use Dynamic Configuration.
- Example 1: I have created multiple different sets of search categories and databases that I would like different groups of Citations Helper users to use. One set is specifically for a European History course and consists of World War I, World War II and Economics categories and their related databases. Another set is specifically for Engineering students and consists of just one category and databases such as ACM Digital Library, Applied Science and Technology Abstracts and Engineering Index (Compendex). My institution only uses SIRSI SingleSearch and there is a single username and password that the Citations Helper will use to access SingleSearch.
- Example 2: I have created a set of commonly used search categories and databases at my library that I would like all Citations Helper users to use. This set consists of General Interest, Science, Literature, Arts and Engineering categories and their related databases. My institution uses both Ex Libris MetaLib and SIRSI SingleSearch. Users affiliated with one metasearch engine do not have access to the other metasearch engine. There is a username and password for each metasearch engine.
Note: If you do not use a metasearch engine, you can still enable the Citations Helper and take advantage of the Custom Citations and Google Scholar Import features.