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Link to Question and/or Chat Forms within FirstSearch
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Linking to Your Question and/or Chat Forms within OCLC FirstSearch

Contents

Introduction
Before You Begin
Procedure

Introduction

If your library subscribes to the OCLC FirstSearch service, you can easily add, to the FirstSearch interface that your patrons see, a link to your library's QuestionPoint question form, chat form, or a more general page that describes your library's Ask a Librarian service. You can also add your library's name and/or logo to the FirstSearch interface. You add these items using the Your Library screen of the FirstSearch administration module.

Note: See the online help for the FirstSearch administration module if you have questions about the administration module not addressed in this document.
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Before You Begin

Before you start this procedure, verify that you:

  • Know your library's FirstSearch authorization and password for the FirstSearch administrative module
  • Have a QuestionPoint question form, chat form, and/or Web page that describes your library's Ask a Librarian service on your library's Web site and that you know its URL
  • Have an image on your Web site that you can use as a link to the question form, chat form, or other Web page (recommended size: 20 pixels high and 20 to 100 pixels wide) and that you know its URL
          and/or
  • Know the text you want for the link within FirstSearch (a maximum of 25 characters)

    Note:

    You can also use the following image for the link instead of an image on your Web site. Its URL is http://www.questionpoint.org/common/images/qpimage.gif.

    QuestionPoint Ask a Librarian
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Procedure

In this procedure, we use a fictional library (Heartland Memorial Library) as an illustration. This library subscribes to QuestionPoint. It has a general Ask a Librarian page that includes links to its question form and chat form.

Step Action
1 Log into the FirstSearch administration module.
2

Click the Interface Display tab. Then click the Your Library Settings link underneath the tabs.

Path to Your Library screen
3

You see the Your Library screen (see below). You can enter one or more of the following:

  • The URL of a logo to appear in the upper left corner of FirstSearch interface screens.
  • Text to appear in the upper left corner of FirstSearch interface screens.
  • The URL of a logo to appear in the upper right corner of FirstSearch interface screens.
  • Text to appear in the upper right corner of FirstSearch interface screens.
  • 1, 2, or 3 custom Web links to appear in the upper right area of interface screens (below any logo or text you add in the upper right corner). The links can lead to various destinations on your library's Web site or anywhere on the Web. You can use one of the custom Web links to add a link to your library's QuestionPoint question form, chat form, or general Ask a Librarian page.

FirstSearch Your Library screen
Note:

In steps 4-6, we show how the fictional Heartland Memorial Library would complete this screen using the data in the table below to:

  • Add its name in the upper right corner of FirstSearch interface screens.
  • Add a custom Web link to its home page.
  • Add a custom Web link to its Ask a Librarian page.

Item Data Image
Library name Heartland Memorial Library
––
URL of the library's home page http://www.heartland.org/
––
URL of the library's logo (image) http://www.heartland.org
/images/mylibrary.gif		 My Library
URL of the library's Ask a Librarian page http://www.heartland.org/ask/ask.html
––
URL of the QuestionPoint Ask a Librarian logo (image) http://questionpoint.org/common
/images/qpimage.gif
QuestionPoint Ask a Librarian
4

In the Logo Image File section, the library adds its name:

  • Leave the default FirstSearch logo in the upper left.
  • Add "Heartland Memorial Library" as the upper right text.
  • Leave blank the upper left text and upper right logo.

This example shows how Heartland Memorial Library completed these fields:

Logo Image File section - completed fields
5

In the Custom Web link 1 section, the library adds a link to its home page:

  • In the URL field, enter the URL that will be the link's destination (the URL of the library's home page).
  • In the Icon URL field, enter the URL of the image to appear in the link (URL of the library's logo)
  • Leave blank the Custom Text field. (The library does not want any text to appear in the link.)

This example shows how Heartland Memorial Library completed these fields:

Custom web link 1 section - completed fields
6

In the Custom Web link 2 section, the library adds a link to its Ask a Librarian page:

  • In the URL field, enter the URL that will be the link's destination (the URL of the library's Ask a Librarian page).
  • In the Icon URL field, enter the URL of the image to appear in the link (URL of the QuestionPoint Ask a Librarian logo)
  • Leave blank the Custom Text field. (The library does not want any text to appear in the link.)

This example shows how Heartland Memorial Library completed these fields:

Custom web link 2 section - completed fields
7

To test the entries, click Test near the bottom of the screen. A FirstSearch screen opens in another window, including the logos, text, and links entered.

FirstSearch Home
8 Test the links by clicking the logo and/or the text link on the FirstSearch interface, such as the Ask a Librarian logo link.
9

If the data was entered correctly, the destination page appears with a FirstSearch header. Click the Return button at the right side of the header to return to FirstSearch. Exit FirstSearch and return to the window containing the administration module.

Heartland Ask a Librarian page
10 Click Save Changes to save your modifications to the Your Library screen.
11 Exit the FirstSearch administration module.
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