Reference at Newman Library

Tag: Bearcat Search

How Bearcat Search Works and What It Covers

Given the central role that Bearcat Search plays in our new library site (it is what is behind the “Articles” search box), it seemed like a good time to completely revise the entry in the ref wiki for Bearcat Search. You’ll now find details on:

  • what can and can’t be found in it
  • how it works
  • search operators and commands
  • things to watch out for when searching
  • best uses

If you run a search in the Articles search box, you’ll get to the Bearcat Search page of results. If you want to first go to the official search page for Bearcat Search and begin there, you’ll find a link to Bearcat Search on the Databases page of the library website.

Bearcat Search Re-launched Using Summon

Today, we have launched the newest iteration of Bearcat Search. The technology under the hood for Bearcat Search will no longer be 360 Search (a federated search tool) but instead Summon (a discovery layer tool). With Summon, we now have a much faster and more reliable search tool offering a friendly and easily navigable interface. If you go to the databases page and click on the Bearcat Search log now, it will take you to the new, Summon-powered version.

Here are some tips for searching:

  • Use quotation marks for phrases
  • Boolean operators must be typed in all caps (AND, OR, NOT)
  • Users can skip AND and NOT and instead use the plus sign and minus sign
    • dogs AND cats is the same search as +dogs +cats
    • dogs -puppies is the same search as as dogs NOT puppies
  • Use an asterisk for truncation and a question mark for wildcards

By default, when you search, you should only be finding items that have have full text access to in our of databases. Just as in JSTOR, you can expand the search to go beyond just the items in our collection; look for the checkbox in the the top left corner of the search results page or the advanced search screen labeled “Include results from outside your library’s collection.”

The items indexed in Summon are mostly articles and ebooks. As was the case with 360 Search, Summon won’t help you find numerical data, images, and other non-bibiographic formats of information. Also, we decided not to include records from our catalog in Summon (Summon lets subscribing libraries upload catalog records as well as records from other local collections). Details on coverage for Summon can be found on the Serials Solutions website.

In most instances, any item on the search results page that you click on will take you to an SFX menu that will show you your options for accessing that content; the remainder of time, a click will take you straight to the full text. In the coming year, the percentage of items that require SFX to get you to the full text will decrease and the percentage that feature a direct link will increase (this improvement is part of the vendor’s overall plan to make Summon less reliant on link resolvers like SFX).

Mike Waldman and I are trying to gauge interest in having a training session for this database. If you are interested, please leave a comment here on this post or contact us directly. Also, if you have any questions or problems with the new Bearcat Search, please let us know.

EBSCO not working in Bearcat

Per Serials Solutions:

“searches conducted against EBSCO databases using 360 Search are not returning results. It appears that EBSCO made changes to how federated search queries are handled against their databases, which in turn broke 360 Search connections. Unfortunately, we learned of this earlier today.

We are working as quickly as possible to resolve this issue, and will provide you with an update by the end of today. ”

Please let me know if you run into anything else.

Relevancy Ranking Options

Mike Waldman’s email message today about the upcoming change to the way EBSCOhost databases will show search results (a move from reverse date sorting to relevancy ranking) made me wonder which databases we have that show search results by date as the default and which ones sort by relevance by default. If there are some that sort by date by default, it is possible that Mike can change the settings to relevance.

Here’s a quick roundup of database sorting defaults. Please note that I haven’t included every database we have; just some of the big ones or the ones that use the same platform for access to multiple databases.

Sort by Date by Default

  • Bearcat Search
  • CUNY+
  • EBSCOhost (this will change to relevance soon; Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, etc.)
  • Factiva
  • Gale InfoTrac (for some but not all databases: Academic OneFile, New York State Newspapers)
  • ProQuest (ABI/INFORM Global, Alt Press Watch, Ethnic NewsWatchWall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.)
  • Web of Science (Social Science Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index)

Sort by Relevance by Default

  • Gale InfoTrac (for some but not all databases: Gale Virtual Reference Library, Opposing Viewpoints Reference Center, Literature Resource Center)
  • LexisNexis Academic
  • WilsonWeb (Library Literature, Reader’s Guide, etc.)

Should we make any changes to these default settings? Please post your comments here.

Custom Search Boxes for Bearcat

If you are interested in setting up a custom search box for a cluster of databases in Bearcat (such as all the psychology databases in Bearcat or all the accounting databases in Bearcat), let me know. Saad and I were able to figure out how to get them to work on and off campus. You can see examples of these custom search boxes on the following LibGuides:

  • The Finding Articles page on Louise’s Management guide (look for the box labeled “Bearcat Search for Business and Management”)
  • The Getting Started page on my Literature guide (look for the box labeled “Literature Databases”)
  • The Getting Started page on my Philosophy guide (look for the box labeled “Philosophy Databases”)

The code for these custom search boxes can be embedded in all sorts of places: web pages on the library site, blogs, wikis, etc. As an example, I’ve added the code for Louise’s business and management search box to this post:

Not sure where to start your search? Try Bearcat Search, which searches multiple databases at the same time.

TitleAuthorFull TextKeywordSubjectISSNAny

Search results from:

CORE DATABASES

  • ABI/Inform Global
  • Business Source Complete

RELATED DATABASES

  • Factiva
  • Conference Board
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library
  • PsycINFO
  • JSTOR

Coming Changes to 360 Search

After sitting through a 30-minute presentation from Serials Solutions about the new release of 360 Search, I learned that  starting in mid to late December we should have the ability to do a few new things with Bearcat (which is powered by 360 Search) that weren’t possible before or that were harder to do before:

  • connect more databases to Bearcat that we couldn’t before
  • control (to a limited extent, I think) how individual databases are searched
  • customize subject clusters of databases ourselves (instead of having to send request to Serials Solutions asking them to do it for us)