Using Scoped Searching in the WebPAC
The WebPAC offers users the ability to restrict the scope of a search to the collection belonging to a particular library location (or branch or department) or to bibliographic records with particular values in the BCODE1, BCODE2, or BCODE3 fields. For example, a scope for audio visual material could be based solely on location (e.g., Art and Music) or solely on material type (e.g., musical scores or recordings).
Higher-level location codes (such as for bibliographic or program records) must exist in the current scope in order for attached records with lower-level location codes (e.g., items, checkins, etc., for bibliographic records, and sections for program records) to appear in a scope. You can obtain and use Innovative's link maintenance features to make sure all records exist within the correct scope. If your scoped searches are missing authority references, review Scope Authority Records.
The WebPAC establishes scoped sessions by retaining scope in the URLs from the search results pages and with cookies. For more information on how scopes display in URLs, see the description of the /search command link.
When a user limits a search by scope, the WebPAC retains that limit until one of the following conditions occurs:
- The user modifies the scope setting.
- The user clicks Start Over or New Search and the STARTOVER and RESET_SCOPE Web options are set accordingly.
- The user navigates to Home (the mainmenu.html page) via the the / command link.
Setting Up Scoped Searching in WebPAC
To set up scoped searching in your WebPAC:
- Check your Scope Menu to see what scopes are set up on your database. Make a note of the scope line numbers used in your list of scopes (for example, 1 for the first entry, 2 for the second, etc.).
You can change the public display labels and order that the scopes appear in drop-down menus by modifying your Scope Menu. - Create an opacmenu.html for each scope. Name each file using the _s# suffix, where # is the scope number. For example, opacmenu_s1.html for the first scope, opacmenu_s2.html for the second scope, etc.
- Link to the scoped opacmenu.html files from the Main Menu (mainmenu.html). There are four different methods for accomplishing this:
- To show a dropdown list of scopes, insert the <!--{scope}--> token in your mainmenu.html, opacmenu.html, and srchhelp.html files. If your library has acquired the Program Registration product, insert the <!--{scope}--> token on your programs.html file.
- Create and customize an HTML file called scopemenu.html and link to it from the mainmenu.html file. In the scopemenu.html file, make entries for the scopes using the ~S# command link where 'S' is uppercase and # is the scope number that displays the opacmenu_s#.html file. For example:
<a href="/search~S1/">Main Library</a>
<a href="/search~S3/">North Library</a> - Make links to the opacmenu_s#.html files on the mainmenu.html page using the ~S# command link just as in the scopemenu.html method.
- Create links to scoped catalogs from a separate Web page, such as the Web page for your campus, library, or branch, by inserting the full URL of the scoped catalog search page. Include the ~S# element in the URL just as in the scopemenu.html method. For example:
<a href="http://lib.cat.edu/search~S2">Search the North Library catalog</a>NOTE
The command link syntax to do an "Entire Collection" search is <a href="http://[your library address]/search~">
- Configure your the Limit NETWORK access table to utilize WebPAC logins with preferred default scope settings.
When you create a WebPAC login, that login has a defined scope (see Notes on WebPAC logins). In the Limit NETWORK access table, you can specify that certain IP addresses must use a specific login. Set the IP address to the login with the scope you want as the initial scope. - Set your WebPAC Scoping Options, as needed.
- The LOCKSCOPE Web option can prevent users from changing the scope of the original connection, based on the WebPAC login. You can use this option to suppress the scope drop-down menu from appearing on search results pages.
- The RESET_SCOPE Web option controls how the Start Over affects a search. If this option is set to a true value, the system resets the scope to the default value based on the WebPAC login when the user clicks the Start Over button.