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Help & AboutTable of Contents
PurpleSearch is a new service from the University of Groningen Library, using an experimental concept of searching multiple external databases simultaneously.
The University Library is constantly monitoring the quality of its services and working on how to improve them.
Nevertheless, it is possible that the information you find via PurpleSearch may not be complete or does not match your search query.
It is possible for errors to occur during data processing. PurpleSearch makes it possible to search the most important databases of academic literature simultaneously. It is an interface that simplifies and eases so-called federative searching because you no longer need to select the databases to be searched in advance.
PurpleSearch learns, over time, what each databases contains and will give good results for any given search query.
PurpleSearch combines smart search techniques and local indexing, and uses that index for each new search.
Databases to present results from are selected from the index, based on which ones seem to score the best for a query. Search results may differ from each other at different points in time. This may be due to
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The databases that are searched by PurpleSearch can be found in an alphabetical list here.
Clicking the i button,
PurpleSearch searches a set of heterogeneous databases in all possible fields. The majority are bibliographic databases and library catalogues, but full-text files and databases of factual information are also searched. These include company information, astronomical data, image databanks, etc.
While working in PurpleSearch, you can step back a screen using the Back button in your browser.
Please send a mail to PurpleSearch is powered by the MetaLib X-server from ExLibris. It was developed by Bart Alewijnse and André Keyzer, Digital Library Facilities Department, in close collaboration with information specialists of the Department of Information Services & Collection Development, both at the Groningen University Library. The PurpleSearch interface was designed by Bjorn Eerkes bno, BeMedia. There are also a few icons from from silk set (cc-by), Sweetie (cc-by-sa) and Mini Icons 2 (cc-by-sa). "This product includes GeoLite data created by MaxMind, available from www.maxmind.com," used to show country flags in the admin-accessible statistics, displaying where users are from.
In the middle of the screen you will see a search box. Type your search terms in here. Click on Search to start the hunt.
The default choice for the record fields to be searched is All.
This means that the search term can appear anywhere in a record.
You can also search only the title field (words must appear in the title) or the author field. We advise you to search only by
the author's surname, or with the addition of one initial that the system will autocomplete (suggestion).
N.B. The accuracy of the author field is limited, particularly where initials or first names are concerned.
Most of the databases that are searched are in English. Please therefore use English search terms.
Only a limited number of databases will be searched with Dutch or other language information.
The databases searched by PurpleSearch all deal with diacritics (accents, Umlauts) in different ways.
Please be aware of this and try spelling alternatives with or without diacritics, or for example oe for ö.
PurpleSearch can deal in a limited way with different alphabets and scripts (Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese, etc.)
but here, too, the different databases cope in different ways. In such cases, please also search using the
transcription (moskva as well as Москва).
When using several search terms, the system will search the databases for records in which both search terms appear.
This also applies to phrases. For example, with American revolution, records will be found containing the phrase
American revolution, but also ones with both words revolution and American separately.
The Boolean operator AND is only partially supported because it is impossible to check how the various databases deal with it. The other Boolean operators (OR, NOT, WITHOUT, NEAR) are not supported. Please avoid the use of long, complicated search strings. It is much more sensible in these cases to work in the native interface of a recommended database. You cannot use wildcards to search. Truncation is not possible. PurpleSearch autocompletes search terms (suggests search terms) based on indexation. Using such indexed search terms always yields a search result. If PurpleSearch does not (yet) recognize a search term, this does not mean that the search term will not produce a result. You can just ignore a completed/suggested term by filling in your own search term! The search will then be done in a number of very large databases that actually cover all academic fields.
The search tab will take you from anywhere back to the opening screen with an empty search box.
The help tab will open a screen with information about PurpleSearch, help texts and explanations.
The login tab enables the login process. Use your S number (University of Groningen students) or P number (staff). Staff of the UMCG should use their usual login name and password. You do not have to log in on a workstation within the University or UMCG, but logged-in users have access to their own data storage area (My data) where they can store and edit search results. You do have to log in if you want to use PurpleSearch on a computer outside the University of Groningen or UMCG. Logging out: click on log out.
Search results saved in My data can be looked at again, arranged or processed.
You must be logged in to make use of the functionality of My data.
This is where your saved hits are stored. The most recently saved record appears at the top. The saved records are shown with a brief title presentation. Click on details for a full title presentation. You can add notes to each record. Click on Add public review to give an assessment of the publication. Click on the save-button to save your review. This can be read by other PurpleSearch users. Click on Add public review again to close the window. Click on Add personal notes to make notes on a record for your own use. Only you can read these notes in My data once you have logged in again. Click on the save-button to save your notes. Click on Add personal notes again to close the window. Once you have used either functionality on a record it will appear in bold and show as Change public review and Change personal notes respectively. You can organize the saved search results in Collections by giving them a tag. Click on Add to ollections and give the record in question a tag (e.g. keyword or number). Use the same keyword for a different record and both records will be listed on the right of the screen under that keyword, under Collections. You can remove records from My data by clicking Delete record.
This is where you can recall all stored records, or the latest additions, or the records that have not yet been included in a collection.
The short URLs you have made are listed under My saved links.
Here you also have the possibility to make a very short URL for a link to an electronic article or an e-book.
This is handy because the URLs for such items are often extremely long and it's easy to make mistakes.
With Create short URL, you can turn a long URL for an electronic article or the like into a short URL that can then be stored. Copy the long URL from the title presentation (copy shortcut or copy link location) in the window and click on the Save link button. The short URL will then appear in your My saved links list. You can also use this functionality when the link to a full-text article from PurpleSearch turns out not to be complete. A number of hosts of electronic journals do not provide links that take you exactly to the first page of an article. It takes you only to the relevant issue or volume of the journal, or sometimes only to the host's homepage. Usually you can click on until you get to the right article with the details from the title presentation. The URL you then see in the address bar of your browser can now be converted into a short URL using the procedure described above. Use copy and paste to enter the URL into the window. After clicking the Search button, the search of all remote databases starts. This search can take from a few seconds to a maximum of 30 seconds. The response from the databases will then be presented, giving the number of hits. The menu bar and the search bar remain available at the top of the window. The databases that produce the best results for your search query appear on the tab databases. During the search, the order in which the databases are displayed will change according to the number of hits (results). Attention is also paid to the relative size of the databases. Click on the scrollable view results bar to view the search results from the relevant database. The results from the other databases will be stored in the background.
You can request information about the database by clicking on the i button,
Click on the
This functionality offers some extra instruments to get more from your search action.
Other databases that produced results with your keyword are displayed in a list. The larger the font size, the better the result, according to the PurpleSearch analysis. In some instances there may be databases here that produced quantitatively more search results than a database that appears near the top of the list, but PurpleSearch considered the nature of the database to be less relevant for the search query. On the other hand, there could also be databases here with only a few, but very relevant search results. Click on Repeat search in this set of databases to call up the results or click on Search in this database to search that particular database only.
In some rare cases your attention will be drawn to a database that can not be searched by PupleSearch, but which may hold relevant information.
Using the index, PurpleSearch can indicate which terms appear often in relation to your chosen keyword. These terms are presented in a so-called Word Cloud. The larger and bolder the font, the more often the term appears near your keyword. Click on one of these related or alternative terms to start PurpleSearch searching with it.
This offers alternatalternative terms that sound similar. This is handy if you've been using a term that is not quite right, or if you want to search further with plural forms, etc. Sometimes it's just hilarious. Click on one of these alternative terms to start PurpleSearch searching with it. Once you have clicked on the view results bar from the list of databases, PurpleSearch will collect the search results for the relevant database. The first ten results will be displayed on a page under the results tab. If there are more than ten results, you can scroll to the next page of ten results by clicking on Next at the top of the tab. Click on Previous to go back a page. You can always see where you are in the total number of results (e.g. 11-20 of 37). The menu bar and the search bar remain available at the top of the window. In addition, the tab with searched databases remains accessible. It now has a view databases button. If you want to view the results from one of the other databases, you can click on it and make a new choice. The search results are presented in a list of brief title descriptions. These descriptions consist of:
Where possible, the title of an electronic publication (e-article or e-book) will be clickable and will take you to the full text or the web page where you can find the full text. This applies to all the electronic journals and e-books to which University of Groningen staff and students have access based on our licences.
The detailed title description is presented on a tab called detailed result. The menu bar and the search bar remain available at the top of the window. Use the Next and Previous buttons at the top of the tab to move to the next or the previous title description. You can return to the list of brief title presentations by clicking on the results tab. The detailed result tab lists the title details for every record again:
The title of an electronic publication (e-article or e-book) is clickable and takes you to the full text or the web page where you can find the full text. This applies to all the electronic journals and e-books to which University of Groningen staff and students have access based on our licences.
Keywords or tags that describe the publication in more detail, with information from the source database.
Underneath it, in the Availability block, are the database(s) that supplied the title information or where information can be found. With electronic publications, this is also a gateway to the full text. You can also search for the publication here in the University of Groningen Catalogue. A short URL is offered for each of these links (create short URL). These URLs are stored under My data, Saved links.
Availability may also display various blocks with extra information, depending on what is available in the various sources.
Presents the covers and ISBN numbers of other editions of a book. These may be paperback editions, later editions, translations or adaptations.
Other editions of the book in question held by the University of Groningen libraries. Click on the RUG logo to check in the Catalogue. Other editions held elsewhere. You can find more information about the edition by clicking on the LibraryThing, WorldCat or Amazon.com logos. On the left of the page is a tab with various options for saving the title details, printing or e-mailing them, or processing them in one of the citation management packages. The title details can also be used to start a different search action in a number of external search engines, including A9, Google and Google Scholar. Groningen University students and staff can use their s- and p-accounts. UMCG accounts also work, and demo accounts (provided upon request) can be used when.
If you are using the application from a computer inside your institution, you can freely search
and would only need to log in if and when you want to save items, or otherwise add/edit personal data.
If you are using your home connection, you also need to log in to be able to search at all. The length such a login stays valid depends on the configuration. On public computers any amount of time can be too long, so remember to log out of your sesstion. (Note that since logins are mediated by cookies, login is separate per browser/computer. Logout logs out all sessions, for security and simplicity.) If you are not using a computer from within your university, a login is required to do a search. A login is also used to give you user-specific data such as bookmarks, and to edit this data. Bookmark and tag data is considered public, in that people can use/look through them. Since being logged in currently allows nothing beyond bookmark editing, there is little security risk beyond having your bookmarks deleted by a malignant user.
Some usage is logged, such as search queries and the amount of results, for statistical purposes
(insight into searches yielding no results, overview of use by department, etc.) In case of recent articles, you may be a little too early. For many resources there may be days, weeks, sometimes longer between the time at which the article is published in a journal, the metadata becomes available to libraries, and the full-text becoming available. You may want to try again later. Some full-text links do not send you to the article you were looking for, and instead leads to a page that lists issues or such, or even just a search page. This usually means that the article is available to be read, but we are prevented from sending you directly to it (often because the provider does not support this). You can usually find the material by looking for the relevant issue, year, etc. on the site itself. This is often caused by a buggy site that forgets that it was in the middle of sending you a file. These PDFs are usually small and contain a HTML document, for example asking for additional authentication. This type of bug seems to be strangely common. Can I use Zotero?
Yes. Note that you probably want to rely on its interception of EndNote and Refman exports, rather than using the import icon that appears in the location bar; the latter feature currently (early 2009) does not work on AJAX-heavy site such as this (and currently seems quite fragile).
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beside a name gives a detailed description and, where possible, a link to the database's own (native) interface.
You can also contact the helpdesk and loans desk staff of the University libraries or go to 
in the upper right corner to close the window.