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---------> Log in to InfoGate <---------
A Quick Guide to InfoGate and FindIt

Find E-Journals What is Find It?
Multi-Search More Information about Find It!
Viewing and Managing Results Accessing InfoGate from Off-Campus
My Space Need Additional Help?

What is InfoGate?

InfoGateoffers a quick, easy and personalized interface which can simultaneously search for information in a variety of information resources, such as catalogs, reference databases, digital repositories, or subject-based Web gateways. Once you have found the information in which you are interested, InfoGate provides you with the tools to save it for future reference, save it to disk, send it by email or use Find It to go to additional services, such as links to full text.

More Information about InfoGate

Why Log In?

Logging in as an authenticated Brown University user allows you to access the databases the library has subscribed to for you. It also enables you to take advantage of InfoGate's personalized services, using My Space. If you are off-campus, logging in is required to access the databases to which the library subscribes.
Log in with your Brown University Username (AuthID) and password. For more information about your Brown Username, please contact the CIS Help Desk or call 863-HELP.

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Quick Sets

Quick Sets offer a choice between a simple Google-like search form and an advanced search option. Novice users can search resources from sets pre-defined by librarians, rather than selecting specific resources. Logged-in users can create and save their own QuickSets.

 

Search Quick Sets:

  • Select a Quick Set by clicking the radio button

  • Select Simple or Advanced Search

  • Enter search terms. It is not necessary to use quotes around words you wish to search as a phrase. Use ? as a truncation symbol.

  • Click Go

Quick Sets are pre-defined lists and do not reflect the true depth of the database collection. If you wish to view all available resources in an alphabetical list or by subject, please go directly to Find Databases.

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Find Databases

Allows users to search the list of available databases:

by title

 

by category and
sub-category

 

by keyword, vendor and type

 

Please Note: this document assumes all users are using the brief view to view results. To get to the brief view from the default table view, please click on the link in the gray area just above the results listing.

Once a list of databases is retrieved users may:

  1. click the title of the database to go directly to the native interface.

  2. click for more information about the database

  3. click to add the database to My Databases for use in a Quick Set or as part of a Multi-Search

  4. click to search the database from the InfoGate interface. If no search icon is present, the database may not be searched from the InfoGate interface. Click the title to go to the native interface.

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Find e-Journal

Search for e-journals by title or issn. Subject categories are coming soon! The contents of the InfoGate e-journal list largely corresponds with the library's free-standing e-journal list . The free-standing list contains a link to the journal's catalog record in Josiah, making it easy to determine if the library subscribes to the journal in other print or microform. Clicking on the Find it! button in the InfoGate list allows you to search Josiah for the title. e-Journals are not currently searchable from within the InfoGate interface.


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Multi-Search

Create customized sets and search up to 10 databases simultaneously.

  1. Select from menus. Search for databases by title, vendor, keyword and type. Or select individual databases from Quick Sets or from your MY Space folder.

  2. Choose Simple or Advanced search and enter your search terms. It is not necessary to use quotes around terms you wish to search as a phrase. Use a ? as a truncation symbol.

  3. Click the checkbox to include up to 10 databases in your search.

  4. Click GO

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Viewing your Results

This intermediate screen provides search status information to the user before the full results list is presented. Click View Retrieved to see the full set of results.

 

Managing your results:

  1. toggle between display formats. Please Note: this document assumes all users are using the brief view to view results.

  2. return to summary screen

  3. jump to a record or sort results by year, article author, article title, or database

  4. retrieve more results

  5. article citation information. Clicking the article title takes you directly to the full record for that citation.

  6. Save in my Space saves the current citation to the My Citations section of My Space. The Find It button opens a menu of services available for the citation - including a link to full text.

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My Space

This customizable section of InfoGate allows users to save citations, database sets, e-journal titles, queries and to receive email alerts when new results are found. Users must be logged in to use this feature of InfoGate. Once saved to My Space, items are held there indefinately.

If you clicked the Save In My Space icon in your result set, your citations will appear here in the "Basket" folder. You may create other folders. You may also save and email citations and you may export sets of references to Refworks, the new bibliographic software available on campus.

 

If you clicked the - + - icon in your result sets those databases are on the clipboard in the right pane below.

Create your own QuickSets by saving the entire clipboard or create a new set in the left pane and move selected databases. Once you have created a Quick Set of your own, it will display on the Quick Sets page every time you log into InfoGate.

 

You may save queries to My History. Once saved you may:

  1. set up queries to be automatically rerun by the system with an email generated if new results are found.

  2. delete queries

  3. edit queries

 

You may edit or delete your alerts at any time

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What is Find It?

 Find It is context-sensitive linking software that can take you from a database citation to the online full text of a cited article or, if full text is not available, it can pass your search to the library catalog, to interlibrary loan services and to other related resources and services. Click on the Find It button in any citation to open the menu of choices.

 

Find It menu

The Find It menu lists a variety of available options for finding and managing citations resulting from searches. Load the menu by clicking on the Find It button next to any citation.

  1. The full article citation

  2. Full text is available. Click the GO button to view.

  3. In the absense of full text, these links allow you to search for local holdings.

  4. Do and author search in Web of Science.

  5. Export the citation to your Refworks account.

  6. Look for more information in Google Scholar

  7. Or another web search engine.

  8. If you experience problems with the Find It menu, please send us feedback.

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Are you Off Campus?

You'll need to authenticate as a Brown University user to access the databases to which the library subscribes and to make full use of the InfoGate software. There are two primary means of authenticating.

  1. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) client makes your network traffic appear to originate from on campus. This is the most reliable method for remote authentication and is your best choice if you have a broadband Internet connection, via a cable modem or direct subscriber line (DSL). If you use the Lifespan or other VPN client you will not be able to use the Brown VPN; use EZProxy instead.
    Download VPN for Windows / Download VPN for MAC OS X
    For assistance with the VPN client, contact the CIS Help Desk: help@brown.edu or 863-7HLP.

  2. EZProxy - LOG IN IN HERE TO AUTHENTICATE AS A BROWN USER
    EZProxy allows authorized users to access licensed resources without installing additional software. This is your best choice if you are using a computer where you cannot install software or if you are on telephone modem. With EZProxy, unlike the VPN client, each time you open a new browser session you will need to re-authenticate.
    For assistance with EZProxy, contact : Library_Proxy@brown.edu .

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Need Additional Help?

Assistance is available 24 hours per day from your computer. Check out the InfoGate FAQ and the Find It FAQ.

Context sensitive help is always available by clicking the help link at the top of every InfoGate screen. Context sensitive Icon Keys help make sense out of the icons used by InfoGate.

 

Contact a Librarian: Scholarly Resources Librarians with specialities in various subjects are available for research consultations. Contact a subject specialist by selecting one from the list at: http://www.brown.edu/library/disgroups/specialists.php

Live Chat with Library Staff: BULChat is Brown Library's Live Chat Service. For more information on how to chat live see the FAQ.

Attend a PASS Class: Attend a class to learn more about how to use library resources, including InfoGate. The full listing of available classes is available from the CompEd website.

Additional questions and comments may always be emailed to the InfoGate Implementation Team.

 


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Brown University Library
Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA
Contact: libweb@brown.edu
Last Updated: Monday, 05-Dec-2005 14:00:57 EST