FAQ
1. What is Vera Multi-Search?
2. How
is Vera Multi-Search different from Google Scholar?
3. How
is Vera Multi-Search different from the previous version of Vera?
4. Why don't you have a set that searches all your databases
at one time?
5. What
does it mean when it says "timed
out" after a particular database?
6. Why is it
that sometimes I can't get to the full text of a particular article?
7. Why are there so many results for which
you don't have the full text?
8. How do I access these resources from
off-campus?
9. Who may access these resources?
10. May I still use the old Vera?
11. Can I create my own
set of database to search? Can I store a list of my favorite databases? or
favorite searches? or favorite e-journals?
12. May I use bibliographic software
to connect to your databases?
13. What's the best URL to use when
bookmarking a particular database?
14. What if I have further
questions or comments?
- 1. What is Vera Multi-Search?
- Vera Multi-Search is a tool to help you quickly find journal articles and other materials from several different library research databases all at once.
It uses what's known as a "federated search" to search databases from different publishers' sites (our subscription e-journals and databases). It then merges the results and presents them to you in one interface. When you click on a title, you are linked back to the publisher's site for the full text of that article. - 2. How is Vera Multi-Search different from Google Scholar?
- Google Scholar has made arrangements with some publishers of scholarly content to index their materials. However, they don't index all of the MIT Libraries' subscriptions. If you only search Google Scholar, you will miss many additional materials that the MIT Libraries subscribe to.
Another difference is that Google Scholar crawls the full text of the content and puts it into one very large database that you can search. Vera Multi-Search uses what's known as a "federated search" to query external databases from many different publishers not on the MIT campus (our subscriptions).
It takes the top 30 results from each database, merges them into one list ranked by relevance, and presents them to you in our interface. When you click on a title, you then go back to the publisher's site that contains the full text of that article. If we don't subscribe to the full text, you will see links to other options, such as requesting it via Interlibrary Loan or getting a printed copy from our own collections (some older items are only available in print). - 3. How is Vera Multi-Search different from the previous version of Vera?
- The previous version of Vera did not include "metasearch" capabilities. It was a tool for looking up particular e-journal or database titles (such as "journal of cell biology" or "JSTOR"). You could follow links to get to that publication, which you could then search in that site's interface.
Vera Multi-Search does the searching for you in about 40 of our most frequently-used databases. These databases index the content of thousands of e-journals. We have grouped them into sets: Interdisciplinary, Art and Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Management and Business, Science, and Social Sciences.
For example, when you enter your query in the Engineering set it searches about 10 different databases (such as Compendex and INSPEC), and shows you the results in our interface. You may then send your same query to a different set, such as Management and Business, which includes about 8 different databases from that field.
We have also preserved the ability to search for a particular e-journal or database by title, which you can do from the box on the top of the home page. - 4. Why don't you have a set that searches all your databases at one time?
- Since we have over 500 databases, the wait time would be too long to be practical. The technology we're using works best when searching up to about 12 databases at one time. So we've put together sets of databases that contain from 6-12 of the most important databases for each field.
There are a small sub-set of databases that don't work with this particular technology at all. Those need to be searched individually. Many of these are in the field of Management and Business. For those we have other tools to help you select appropriate databases, namely the Dewey Research Advisor and the Business Database Advisor. - 5. What does it mean when it says "timed out" after a particular database?
- Since we are sending your search to many different databases from external sites, it sometimes happens that some of them are unreachable. This could be for different reasons, such as that site being down, or the connection files on our end being out of sync with changes that vendor has made to their system.
It's always a good idea to try again before you report it as a problem, because sometimes these are just temporary glitches.
We have provided a button on the screen where you wait for results, called "enough results" that you may click to interrupt the search and see what's been found so far. If you don't click that button, our system will stop after 45 seconds of searching and bring you to the results screen. Most databases will finish their searching in that amount of time, but sometimes a particular one is slow. If it's not finished, the "timed out" message will appear. The best thing to do is start looking through the results you've got, and then try the search again later.
See Database Issues for specific problems with certain databases.
And of course you can always search the native interface of any of our databases directly by clicking the links in the sidebar of the results screen that name each database you searched. - 6. Why is it that sometimes I can't get to the full text of a particular article?
- Ideally, when you click on the title of a result, you'll be sent directly to the full text in the particular publication. Sometimes we have the same title available from more than one source, and in that case a menu will appear listing the options, and you can follow the links from there.
Depending on the external site that contains the article, it may not be possible for us to link you all the way to that exact article. Instead, you may land on a search screen where you have to search again for the particular title. This happens when the technology of the external site doesn't work with the technology we use to make the connections. It's not always in our power to bring you the last step of the way. - 7. Why are there so many results for which you don't have the full text?
- Many of our research databases include citations for titles to which we don't subscribe. In those cases, a menu will appear that provides a link to our interlibrary borrowing service: ILLiad, where you can order copies of articles or borrow books from other libraries, at no cost to you.
We also provide a link that will search our catalog (Barton) for the title you selected. There you can often find a print copy of the journal. If you don't have time to visit the library and photocopy the article, you may want to use our Web-Docs service, where you can have articles from our collection made into PDFs and delivered to you for a small fee. - 8. How do I access these resources from off-campus?
- If you are searching from off-campus, you'll need MIT certificates in your browser to use Vera Multi-Search and also to view the particular e-journal content on the publishers' sites. Alternatively, you may download and install MIT's VPN client.
- 9. Who may access these resources?
- Current members of the MIT community (those with MIT certificates) may access these resources from on or off campus. Vendors from whom we purchase these resources impose license restrictions that prevent us from offering off-campus access to anyone outside the immediate MIT community. Guests may still view the pages that list our e-journals and databases, but they will not be able to access the full-text. They will be redirected to a version of the home page for guests.
- 10. May I still use the old Vera?
- Yes, the old Vera is still available at the same URL as before: http://libraries.mit.edu/vera. It will continue to be available for a few months while Vera Multi-Search (http://libraries.mit.edu/vera-beta) is in beta. We are gradually adding features to Vera Multi-Search that will replace the pages in the old Vera that list all of our subscription research databases (over 500). Until then we are linking to the old Vera from certain parts of this site, such as the pages that list all the databases for each subject. (Social Sciences, for example).
- 11. Can I create my own set of database to search? Can I store a list of my favorite databases? or favorite searches? or favorite e-journals?
- We may add features like this in the future.
- 12. May I use bibliographic software to connect to your databases?
- Yes, see Overview of Bibliographic Software at MIT, EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero.
- 13. What's the best URL to use when bookmarking a particular database?
- We have set up a system of "shortcut" URLs that are easy to remember and will not change over time.
- 14. What if I have further questions or comments?
- Try our "Ask Us" service for general research questions and technical help. For comments, bug reports, or suggestions, use our Feedback form.
