Database Display Order Guidelines

Scope: Guidelines on the order in which databases or access points will be listed in the library's public facing portal

Contact: Alaina Deane

Unit: Electronic Resources & Serials Acquisitions

Date last reviewed: 05/09/2022

Date of next review:

Ex Libris uses the word “databases” for what we sometimes call “access points” for all content formats, including books, journals, and research databases. In the library world, the world “database” has another meaning but for the sake of this documentation we will use the word “databases” interchangeably with “access points”.

At Duke, we have paid (and free) access to thousands of databases, and it’s important to keep these access points organized for easy and reliable retrieval of online resources. Our goal is to have the most accurate and reliable resources or access points listed at the top and the less reliable resources or access points listed at the bottom. Newly activated databases automatically go to the bottom of the list and must be inserted into their proper position manually. What we organize in Ex Libris will display in Duke’s E-Journal Portal. This portal shows library users how many “copies” or access points of a particular title we have access to.

Here is an example of an ebook that we can access on 4 different sites.

The E-Journal Portal is especially helpful when trying to find journals and articles because it displays coverage dates (see below).

Here are the steps to organize our Database Display Order:

1. Login to the Ex Libris Client Center
2. Open the Administration Console for 360 Link
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3. Click on Database Order on the column on the left
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4. To edit the Database Order, click Edit towards the top right or bottom right of the page (the Edit Button should change to a SAVE button; if it doesn't, reload the page). You can drag and drop the databases into their new position on the list or, if you don't want to scroll too far, then click on the database's number in the Order column. When this field becomes editable, type in the number of the position you want to move the database to, then hit the Enter key. You will see a red triangle in the corner of the number, indicating it has been changed:

1. Organize the new databases in the desired order – the newly activated databases will be at the bottom of the list below Factiva (Selected Full Text). The example below shows 5 newly tracked databases that we need to organize.
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Below are guidelines to use when organizing/ranking databases:

NOTE: alphabetize by name of database within following tiers:

• HIGH – anything hosted on a publisher platform, including ejournal publisher packages, ejournal backfiles, ebook publisher packages, ebook backfiles (these are more likely to have unlimited number of user access, no DRM…)
  • e.g. Publishers themselves hosting content (OUP, Springer… these will be most up to date sources for this content)
  • Ingenta—many small publishers hosted on this platform
  • Open Access – content that we are actively supporting and/or that is original content from a publisher from which we are receiving other paid content
  • "Single Journals" database remains at the top of the display order
• MEDIUM – archives, JSTOR (with the exception of current content on JSTOR), Project MUSE, some aggregators
  • e.g. Aggregators: ProQuest eBook Central, EBSCOhost aggregate content (typically embargoed)
  • Historical newspaper archives (Newsbank), archival collections of primary sources (Gale)
• LOW – other aggregators, aggregate open access databases, zero-title databases (includes Abstracting & Indexing services), databases with known linking problems
  • e.g. A&I services that do not contain full-text: Web of Science, MLA, PhilPapers, EconLit…
  • Aggregate OA databases: institutional repositories, Libraria, DOAJ
  • LOCKSS and Factiva will always be at the bottom of the display order

 6. If you're not sure where a new database might fall in the list, make an educated guess – sometimes it helps to look at other similar databases by the same content provider.

 7. To save your changes, click Save towards the top right or bottom right of the page(save periodically). Any edits saved will display in the E-Journal Portal within the next 24 hours.

New databases are frequently activated so check once a week for updates.

Updates to the database display in the DKU KB must be completed manually. Downloading the database list from the DUL KB and trying to upload it to the DKU KB will result in an error message.