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About Livesearch

Livesearch is a portal that was created to cover the needs of the University of Crete academic community on reliable bibliography search in many and heterogeneous resources of information. Through the environment of federated search, the researcher is able to seek simultaneously for information, in natural as well as in electronic format, available in library collections and other sites on the internet.

This advanced search engine supports all international protocols and standards applied in the field of information retrieval via the Internet. It combines high performance characteristics in the search and presentation of the results, it incorporates a mechanism to merge duplicate records and it provides sorting of results by relevance to the search, in alphabetical or in chronological order.

Additional useful tools for the researcher are also available, such as the facets with the most frequent subjects, the creators and the dates of the search results as well as the references from each result to a subject thesaurus and an interlinking system (SFX) that makes possible the navigation to results similar to the original search.

Among the resources available for searching are the local collections of the Library of the University of Crete, many of the databases to which the Library holds subscriptions, catalogues of greek and foreign libraries and a number of selected resources freely accessible on the Internet.

The environment was developed by Indexdata under the 3rd Community Support Framework and within the project «Oistros: Support and enrichment of the Library and Information Services of the University of Crete», 2000-2008. It is a product of open software and is based on open source tools Pazpar2 and Masterkey.

We hope Livesearch will become a useful tool to all researchers and we welcome comments and remarks at livesearch@lib.uoc.gr.

Navigation in Livesearch is possible through Internet Explorer 6.0 and FireFox 2.0 or latest versions.

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Resources

Using Livesearch portal it is possible to search simultaneously in many and heterogeneous information resources. There is a large collection of sources available, covering a wide range of disciplines, with priority given to those that relate to the studies and research at the University of Crete.

In this environment, all the basic tools of the Library of the University of Crete are integrated: the catalogue, the electronic journals, the digital library of modern Greek studies, many of the databases to which the library holds subscriptions and the new e-learning service. Thus, the visitors-members of the University can quickly locate the information available in print or electronic form.

Furthermore, among the resources are library catalogues from Greek and foreign educational and scientific institutions, as well as open content digital collections rich in research or other material.

In order to make browsing through the resources easier during selection process, besides grouping by type, there is also sorting of sources by subject (library catalogues are not included): Humanities, Education, Social Sciences, Science, Medicine.

Finally, it should be mentioned that our intention is to enrich even more the resources collection in the future and that the access always depends on your network connection.

For detailed information about each resource consult the resources description guide.

Search

Livesearch is a search engine that specializes in combined searches in various sources of information. Several possibilities are available for searching, still effectiveness is depended on the features and potential of each resource.

Simple search

Enter the terms you want to search in the query box and hit <enter> key or click theSearch button. Simple search is performed by default to all the fields of the record: title, subject, creator, notes etc ...

In the simple search form you may enter a search in Common Command Language - CCL (ISO 8777) using field qualifiers and Boolean operators. The available field qualifiers are: term, ti, au, su, date.

Advanced search

Use advanced search form in order to construct searches with clearly defined criteria. Enter the terms you want to search in any or all the query boxes of the available fields and click theSearch button. The system will retrieve records that fulfill all requirements. The available fields to search are the following:

• Keyword anywhere: It refers to all the fields of the record: title, subject, creator, notes etc.
• Title: It is useful when you know at least one of the words in the item title.
• Creator: It is possible to search one or more personal names, corporate names etc. [See examples : "smith john", "marsden tromba", "institute mathematical statistics", "erasmus programme"]
• Subject: It is related to the selected keywords that describe the major topics of an item. Take also into consideration that not all material is subject defined.
• Date: It is possible to put a limit on the date of publication, when the resource supports it. [e.g. "2005" in the query box, will retrieve all items until 2005].

Search Tips

• Default Boolean logic between terms is "and" but you may also use:
  • "or" to find results that include either of your terms [e.g. crete or minoan]
  • "not" in order to exclude terms [e.g. crete not minoan]
• Use "?" wildcard at the end of a word root to perform a search that will retrieve all derivatives [e.g. histor? for history and historical]
• To search for words as a phrase put them into quotation marks " "[e.g. "environmental pollution"]
• Avoid insignificant words such as: articles, prepositions etc. except for the case that you search with phrase.

Results

Once the system has finished searching, the dynamic indication Searching... turns into Search completed. The number of the total hits is displayed and you may start browsing the results.

On the screen you will find a combination of results from all the resources that were selected for searching and responded, with a maximum 100 hits shown per target (regardless of the results actually found in the target). They are sorted automatically by relevance to the search, however alternative view in ascending or descending chronological order is possible, as well as in alphabetical title order.

The information for the items on the results page is brief and refers to the title and the creator:
Clicking on the creator automatically leads to a new search, in the already selected resources.
Clicking on the title leads to the full view of the record, with the detailed description of the item and the data for location and availability if applicable.
Next to the title and the creator you may come across a digit in parenthesis, which happens when the same result is found in more than one source. The digit describes the number of the catalogues that host the item.

Navigate back and forward through the results from the page numbering (1, 2, 3...) or the indication <previous and next> page.

Record view

By clicking on the title of a result, the full record is displayed. The main data appear first:

• creator (not always),
• publication date,
• type of material, depicted with one of the following icons:
  

  		book
  		article
  		electronic resource
  		audio
  		video
  		microfilm

• sfx@uoc: it is the interlinking system that offers direct transition to the UOC Library catalogue in order to determine whether the library holds similar information to the original search. This facility is not related to the catalogue as a selected resource to search

The presentation of the item follows by resource and information may be available as listed below:

• the resource
• the link to the original record
• the contributors (other authors, editors, translators)
• the ISBN/ ISSN, the unique number for a book or journal
• the LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number)
• the publisher and other data about publication
• the notes about the item (in case of article citation, then the abstract may appear)
• the physical description e.g. pages, measurement etc
• the language
• the references that the record includes at the source
• the location and availability of the material indicated with (if it is a library catalogue).

Subjects: Afterwards, the subjects of the item are shown. Each subject is an active link and clicking one adds it automatically to the existing query using Boolean logic "and".

Alternatively, you may click on the icon next to every subject, which leads to the index for browsing all subjects of the Library of Congress and eventually realize a new search by choosing one of the listed terms.

Add to the basket: If you are a registered user, you may select one or more results for further elaboration by activating [Add to basket] option in the end of every record.

Basket is in the Livesearch menu, on the top of the screen. That is where the records of the selected results are transferred, in full view (except local information). You may anytime exclude results that after second thought do not interest you, by inactivating the respective frame .

The records in the basket are ready for:

• printing
• sending by email. The selected records will be sent automatically to the e-mail address that the user has stated at registration.
• adding notes to a result from record view in basket. Click on the title of a result for the record view and thenAdd note button in order to add a comment for personal use
• sending title and author details of a selected record from the basket to the Search screen, in order to perform a new search with that data.
• deleting from the basket. Otherwise the selected records are retained from session to session in Livesearch environment for future use.

Limits

Adding Limits: Additional criteria may be used in the result screen, in order to limit search and narrow the bulk of results according to your preferences. Facets are available at the left side of the result set and refer to the source, subject, creator and date of the records. Under each facet type the first 15 most frequent terms are listed. Clicking on one of them, the search will be repeated in the already selected sources adding that extra criterion.

For example to narrow your search in one subject, just click on it. The search screen (still visible) and the current query line automatically incorporate the new term.

Removing Limits: In case you want to remove a limit, you can do so either:
from the search screen by using the cursor and the key "delete" or
from the current query line simply by clicking the term with the cursor.

Then a new search is performed in the selected sources without this criterion.

Visitors

Livesearch is a tool that was created in order to serve the needs of the University of Crete members about bibliography search. Thus, every visitor found in the area of the University or connected to the University of Crete network, may access all the resources available. Non-members of the University of Crete may also use the environment but they have limited access. Visitors who do not connect to the University of Crete network, have access only to the Local Collections of the University.

Registered visitors

In order to become a registered Livesearch user you need to select <Login> from the menu and then click on Registration.

Fill in your personal details and then complete the procedure by clicking on Registration button. After a while you will receive an email confirmation with your personal password, which you can either keep or change during your connection in Livesearch through <Profile>.

Also, if you forget your login details, you may ask for <password reminder> located in <Login> selection.

As registered visitors you have the following privileges:

• you may choose one ore more among the search results and transfer them to a temporary space, the basket. Through the basket you can thereafter print or send them to your email.
• you have default setting to the resources every time you enter the environment according to your preferences. The system stores the resource selection as it was the last time you were signed in.
• you have all the resources included in Livesearch at your disposal, in the meantime, for those that require subscription access depends on your connection to the Internet.
• you may save one or more group of resources as favourites in your personal profile, according to your needs and preferences.