Web accessibility enables people with disabilities to use the Web. It enables them to perceive, understand, navigate, contribute to and interact with the Web.

Web accessibility encompasses a range of disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological disabilities.

Web users may have a variety of difficulties when accessing MetaLib Web pages, which were considered during MetaLib Web design:

• Users may not be able to see, move, or may not be able to process certain types of information
• Users may have difficulty reading or comprehending text
• Users may not be able to use a keyboard or a mouse
• Users may have a text-only screen or a small screen

You can use MetaLib as a guest or as an authenticated user by providing your user credentials.

Guests are not able to save information in their personal eShelf and My Databases. For example, a guest's basket is not saved when a session ends. A guest's access rights are generally limited compared to an authenticated user, and are generally determined by the location of the computer used. For example, a guest may be able to access licensed databases when working on campus but not when working from home.

Logging in as an authenticated user (by entering user credentials, meaning your username and password allows you to access the full spectrum of databases that the institution has made available for you. It also enables you to take advantage of MetaLib's personalized services, using My Space.

To log in as an authenticated user:

1. Click the Log In button that appears in the menu of all the pages.
2. Enter your user credentials (usually provided by your institution).
3. Where relevant, select the institution with which you are affiliated from the dropdown list.

See also

Logging Out

When you log out, you end your MetaLib session. This means that some temporary information is not saved, such as Previous Searches.

Generally, you should log out when you leave your station unattended for reasons of privacy and to prevent others from using your access rights.

Log out by clicking the button.

MetaLib will automatically log you out if MetaLib has not been used for a certain pre-defined period of time. If this happens, you can simply log back in.

See also

Logging In

Guests are not able to save information in their personal eShelf and My Databases. For example, a guest's basket is not saved when a session ends.

To end a session:
Click the End Session button that appears in the menu of all the pages.

Note: At any time during the session, a guest can log in to MetaLib as an authenticated user whereupon the current session data is transferred to his or her personal environment.

See also

Logging In

A portal is a user access port to an institution’s site. Its appearance and content may be customized to cater to the needs of each institution. A portal may represent a particular field of subject matter or it may cater to the specific needs of a group of users.

A portal can be differentiated by different QuickSets, different categories displayed in the user interface, and optionally, an entirely different user interface appearance.

When you use MetaLib, you are assigned a default portal. A logged in user can change the default, which is defined in Preferences.

To change the Portal:

1. Click the Portal button , which appears in the menu of all the pages. A list of portals is then displayed.
2. Select a portal from the list.

See also

Preferences
Logging In

If the portal that you are using supports multi-languages, you can change the MetaLib interface to a different language.

To change the language:

1. Click the Language button , which appears in the menu of all the pages. A list of languages is then displayed.
2. Select a language from the list.

MetaLib enables you to search in a variety of information resources, such as catalogs, reference databases, digital repositories, or subject-based Web gateways. These information resources can be local or remote. In MetaLib, for the sake of brevity, information resources are collectively referred to as "databases".

The databases that you can access are determined by the institution with which you are affiliated. Your access rights to these databases are recognized according to the credentials that you enter when you Log In or according to the location of your work station. For example, a guest using MetaLib from a computer station located on campus will generally have access to more databases than a guest using MetaLib from home.

Databases that are not authorized for searching by authenticated users are indicated with a symbol and for guests are indicated with a lock symbol . Clicking on the lock icon brings you to the log in page.

You can also access the native interface of the database by clicking the database name. This enables you to use the database-specific searching options offered by the information provider.

Each institution determines the databases to which it provides access, allowing you to select individual or groups of resources via the following search modules

• QuickSearch is the easiest search to use. Resources are organized into resource groups called QuickSets You can search the default list of databases or you can select from other ready-made QuickSets prepared by the institution, or QuickSets that you have prepared (My Databases).
  Logged-in users have both lists displayed, their personal QuickSets at the top, with a separation line and beneath it the institutional or Portal QuickSets.
• MetaSearch provides control over which specific databases are searched and provides a variety of additional options. You can locate databases in several ways, such as by title, by category and subcategory or by other criteria. You can also use database lists that the institution has prepared (QuickSets) or that you have prepared (My Databases).
• The Find Database function enables you to locate databases in several ways, such as by title, by category or subcategory, or by other criteria. Once you find an interesting database, you can search it on the spot if the icon is displayed, or you can add it to your database clipboard, along with other databases using the icon. You can use this database clipboard to search directly in the databases that you selected by using MetaSearch. You can also use this clipboard to build your own database lists (My Databases).

MetaLib provides the following search options:

• QuickSearch: QuickSearch is fast and easy. You can simply enter a term and click to perform a search on the default list of resources. You also have the option to select in which set of databases to search. You can select a QuickSet (a set of databases prepared by your institution) or your own lists of databases (called My Databases). The Advanced Search form provides more options (search fields and Boolean operators) for specifying the information for which you are searching.
• MetaSearch: The term MetaSearch, also known as integrated searching, federated searching or cross-database searching, means to submit a query simultaneously to several databases. The query is broadcast to each database, and an integrated list of the results is displayed from all the databases according to the results' relevancy rank. MetaSearch provides a variety of options for specifying the databases in which it searches and a variety of options for viewing the results. It also offers an Advanced Search function that enables you to specify fields for the search and use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
• Search Syntax: MetaLib Keyword Search enables you to enter several search terms in the All Fields, Title and Subject searches, which will be treated as Keywords with Boolean And connectors between them. Exact phrase searching may be performed within these search fields by using quotation marks around the desired phrase.
• In addition, you can locate a specific database using Find Database, and then search in it using Search in Database.
• Click the database name to access the database’s Web site.
• You can go back to previous searches performed in the current session using Previous Searches or rerun searches that you saved in History in previous sessions.
• Based on queries saved in your History, you can define Alerts View that search automatically at intervals of your choice. An Alert notifies you by email when new records are found that match the search criteria.

• Saving Database Lists: Once you have found the databases in which you want to search, you can add them to your database clipboard, and from there, you can save them to your own database lists (called My Databases). Your database lists can be searched using QuickSearch or MetaSearch. The database clipboard can be searched using MetaSearch.
• Saving Search Results: Once you have found the results that you want, you can save them in your basket . Your basket is a temporary storage for records that you find interesting. You can later move records from the basket to a permanent eShelf folder, save () records to disk (in various formats) or email them.
  You can also save an individual search result or send it by mail from the Full View of the record.
• Saving Queries: You see all the searches you made during the session in Previous Searches. Once you have found a query that provides you with good results, you can store it for future sessions in History. You can also define a query to search periodically and update you by email using Alerts View.