Credo Reference Blog

Credo Reference customers are probably aware that they have access to free MARC records for their Credo Collection – they are available in our Admin section, by choosing the MARC Records Tab, then choosing the records that you want to download.

But did you know that we are now making our MARC records available through WorldCat as part of the Vendor Record Contribution Program?

From our recent Content Update:

Finding Credo records:
When a Credo Reference record (OCLC symbol CREDO) is added or matched in WorldCat, a 938 field is added to the MARC record that contains the vendor code CRED. This code is indexed — vendor records are searchable in Connexion using the vendor index (Vendor (vn:) in the dropdown menu).

Please contact support@credoreference.com with any questions.

Please check them out, especially if downloading from WorldCat is your preferred method for obtaining these records, and let us know if you have any questions or concerns!

We’ve recently made some changes and improvements to our Admin section – login and check them out!

1. My favorite of these updates is the ability to sort your Search and Related Resource links. We’ve created a function that will move any link to the top of your list, so if you add a new resource, you can easily just move your list around until it’s in the proper place. Check it out here: http://admin.credoreference.com/menulinks.do. Just click “top” to move any of the resources to the top of your list.

2. We’ve made some clarifications to the MARC Records page, and it is now easier to sort by the date that the records became available. http://admin.credoreference.com/admin.do?page=admin.marcdownload

3. The Collection Management page has been updated to better utilize space, and make it easier for libraries to choose one of our rapid select packages, or fully customize their collection themselves: http://admin.credoreference.com/admin.do?page=admin.cmchange

4. We also released a new User Guide. This is a great resource to help students and librarians alike get the most use possible out of Credo. You can find it on our Corporate site, http://corp.credoreference.com/user_guide2009, or on our Facebook Page – choose the “PDF” tab.

We’d love to hear from you with any suggestions or comments about these new features, or about features you’d like to see us implement. Just leave a comment, or send us an email.

Have you updated your Credo Reference MARC Records lately? We issue new MARC Records every time we add a new title, or update an existing title. Downloading our MARC Records into your library catalog is a great way to let your patrons and students know that a title is available. To access the MARC Records, go to http://admin.credoreference.com and login with your Admin username and password. Once you’ve logged in, choose the “MARC Records” tab, then the “Download” sub-tab, and choose which sort of format you’d like get the records in.

Our recent enhancements to remote access make MARC Records even more valuable than before. Library users who search your catalog remotely will now find it even easier to access Credo titles directly from the catalog!

If you have any questions about MARC Records, or remote access in general, please contact us.

Starting last Friday, you may have noticed that your Credo Reference search page looked a little different! We’ve made some upgrades, and added some important new features.

Search Page
Based on feedback from librarians and users, we’ve enhanced our basic search page with key new features:

1. An image-only search – Searching Credo’s 200,000+ images just got easier. From the Search page, select the Image Search tab and enter your search term to view related images. Similarly, you can access our Concept Map by clicking the Concept Search tab.

2. A featured content section – Our Featured Content area will spotlight interesting searches and content related to current events. Featured Content will be updated regularly and remain timely. We welcome suggestions for the Featured Content area. Send your ideas to support@credoreference.com. If you prefer a simpler search interface, just click the ‘Hide’ button to collapse the Featured Content section. The section will remain hidden in your browser on subsequent visits.

3. An indication of the content you may find in Credo – The search page now includes suggestions for how to use Credo. Under ‘Use Credo Reference to find’, you can click through to our encyclopedias, dictionaries and biographical titles or get quick access to our measurements conversion tool and crossword solver.

During usability testing we found that these new features addressed needs expressed by some users yet didn’t detract from the experience of those who simply want to search directly in Credo’s content. Please do send us any feedback that you have on these new features.

New Search Gadgets

Credo’s current Gadgets have proven very popular, and we’re pleased to announce the addition of two new gadgets:

1. Image search
2. Pronunciation search

Use the Image search to find photos, illustrations or maps. Need to know how to pronounce a term? Type your word into our Pronunciations gadget to find out.

Credo’s Gadgets are accessible from the navigation pane at the top of each page. Gadgets will open on the right side of your Credo pages. Use them to get a quick definition, lookup a person, solve your crossword puzzle and much more.

Remote Login Improvements

It’s now easier to access Credo Reference remotely! As a result of significant improvements to the remote user login process, it’s no longer necessary to physically be at a library or to find Credo through a library web site in order to access Credo’s content. Users who visit www.credoreference.com can now easily find their library and will be directed to their library’s authentication method to access Credo. For more information on these improvements, visit http://corp.credoreference.com/login_faq.

Please note: these improvements don’t affect IP-authenticated users or those who access Credo through proxy servers, Athens or Shibboleth.

One of the things that Credo Reference is most passionate about is making research a more seamless process for our users. We know that users often access Credo for reference materials, then will move on to scholarly journal databases or books to continue their research. With that in mind, we launched the Search and Related Resource links last year, and they have been a great success. More information about our Resource Links is available at http://corp.credoreference.com/resource_links.

We’re very pleased to announce a custom linking agreement with EBSCO Publishing. Mutual customers of Credo Reference and EBSCOhost are now able to expand their searches and easily link from one resource into the other. EBSCO now offers custom linking from EBSCOhost results to related subjects in Credo Reference.

The links will appear in EBSCOhost’s search results and on their entry pages. See an example of how it will look below:

The content from Credo Reference is available via EBSCOhost CustomLinks™ technology. More information about setting up CustomLinks from EBSCOhost to Credo is available at http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=4446.

We are very excited about the addition of this functionality, and look forward to creating more opportunities to help students and others fulfill their research needs quicker and more easily.