Overview

This help page provides a narrative description of Credo Reference and each main page on the site. It is intended to read by screen readers to help describe the site to users who cannot see the pages and who want to understand how each page is structured. Each page also has a more elaborate help page describing the full functionality of the page; the description here is more of a general overview presented as a single narrative page.

About Credo Reference

Credo Reference allows you to search over 3 million entries from over 350 reference titles. Depending on the level of access subscribed to by your library, you may have access to fewer titles than this.

General Page Layout

Each page on Credo Reference has a main menu with eight choices: search, find a book, advanced search, concept map, saved results, gadgets, help and logout. Your library may add up to four custom menu choices and a library logo link. These will link to destinations of the library's choice. These links, if present, will appear after the logout link in the tab sequence.

Each page starts with a 'skip to content' link that you can use to jump over the menu items. Access key 'j' is assigned to this link.

Credo Reference is available in six different language options. A selection list for choosing the language appears after the skip link.

The bottom of each page contains a set of links to information pages about Credo Reference.

The main search page has a single input box and a subject select list. By default your search will search all subjects. As you change subjects, a message below the search box will change to indicate the number of titles and entries included in the selected subject. On this page there are hyperlinks for changing language as well as duplicate links for navigating to the other main pages. There is a single search button for submitting the search.

Search Results

The search results page starts with a message indicating the number of hits and the query that was searched. Below this are form elements that allow you to change the sort order. There may also be an option to continue the search in related resources selected by the librarian. The next section contains summaries of up to ten hits. Each hit summary will indicate the entry heading and title the hit came from. Next to each heading is a checkbox for marking the entry for later email, print or save. If the entry has any images, the first of these will display in thumbnail format below the heading. Each summary also contains one or more sentence fragments from the entry that contain the hit words from the query. The summary ends with a count of words in the full entry and other information about its subject area and publisher.

The results page also has a hierarchical list of links called 'facets' that allow you to narrow your result set by subject, entry type, media component, person name or date. The first two levels are shown by default. Two links at the top of this hierarchy allow you to expand or contract the list. Individual sections of the list will expand or contract as their section heading is selected. Numbers next to each search link indicate the number of entries that match that facet.

Just after the main navigation menu you will find a search form that can be used to enter a new query. Every page on Credo Reference has a search form.

The bottom of the search result contains a sequence of page number hyperlinks and a 'previous' and 'next' hyperlink to navigate forward or backward through the result set.

Entry Display

Selecting a heading hyperlink will show its full entry display. The entry display starts with a search form. Next are a set of navigation links to return to the result set, subject list or book for the entry. Next are a set of links for emailing, printing, saving or sharing this entry.

The entry body starts with a checkbox for marking the entry for email, print or save. The entry heading displays next to the checkbox. Below this will be the rest of the entry full text. The entry might contain hyperlinks to other entries, images, audio hyperlinks, tables, bullet lists or other arrangements of information.

The entry will end with a copyright statement from the publisher. Below this are 'previous entry' and 'next entry' hyperlinks for moving forward or backward through the book.

The bottom of the entry page contains an entry citation and hyperlinks that allow you to change the format of the citation to any one of four supported formats. The entry citation also includes a small form with a select list for saving the citation to a reference manager or other destination.

Finally the entry display contains a hierarchical list of links that contain links to related pages. 'Related Entries' are links to related entries in other books. 'Related Resources' are links to other information sites selected by your librarian that might have information on the same topic. 'Adjacent Entries' are links to nearby entries within the same book. 'Book Browse' links allow you to jump back to the beginning of the book.

Find a Book

Find a Book allows you to locate specific titles in Credo Reference. This page and the next one help users browse through the Credo Reference content. There are up to five tabbed sections that show the list of books arranged in different categorization schemes. Initially the Find a Book page shows books arranged by subject area.

Subject areas in Credo Reference are shown as a menu list of hyperlinks. When you select a subject hyperlink, the title list shrinks to include only the books in the selected subject. Each of the tabbed sections in Find a Book has a similar combination of category links on the left and titles on the right.

The title list also includes a 'Title contains' search box. As each letter is added to this box, the list of titles is adjusted to show only those that contain the letters typed.

As you focus on a title with the mouse or tab key, an information pop-up will appear with additional details about the title including the number of entries and the publisher.

If you select any book from the list, you will be taken to the browse page for the selected book.

Book Browsing

Book browsing provides different lists of entries within the selected book. Each entry list is contained under a tabbed heading. The number of tabs will depend on the book. All books contain an 'About' tab that describes the book. Books will contain either or both of a 'Contents' tab with a table of contents and a 'Headings' tab with an alphabetical list of headings. If the book contains images, person names, audio or video, then a tab for each content type will be shown to allow you to isolate entries with the desired person name or media type.

Most book browse tabs will contain hyperlinks to entries of the selected type. When you mouse over or tab to an entry link, an entry summary pop-up will display showing the first sentence or two from the entry. Press enter on any entry heading hyperlink to navigate to the full text of that entry.

Some books contain several thousand entries or more. Two features facilitate browsing to a desired entry in the book. One is an 'entry contains' search box that will list entries that match the letters you type. This match list appears as a selection list below the search box. Book browse tabs with heading lists will also contain an A to Z set of hyperlinks that allow you to jump to a specific section of the alphabet.

The search form on the Find a Book page contains an additional radio button option that allows you to limit the search to the selected book, if desired.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search form helps build more complex queries. It provides five input boxes for entering keyword or phrase searches with different criteria. It has an expandable set of choices for limiting the results by subject, individual titles, entry type or publication date.

Concept Map

The Concept map is a search form that shows its results in an interactive graphical display. It operates like the main search form. The result set is a Java applet with a depiction of the main hits as a set of nodes with lines showing relationships to related entries for each hit.

Saved Results

The Saved Results page is where you go after you mark entries with the checkbox and you want to email, print or save the marked entries. There are four components to the form.

The first is to select an action, choosing whether to email, print or save the saved results. The default action is email.

The second is to select a format. You can choose 'full' or any of four citation formats.

The third, which only applies to the email action, is a form for entering the email from and to address, a subject line and an optional note to add to the email. This form will not display if the action is not an email action.

The bottom of the page shows your selected entries in the format you’ve chosen under the heading "My Saved Results". Icons after each entry allow you to remove the citation from the list if you do not want it to be emailed, printed or saved. The heading of each saved entry is hyperlinked so you can return to the full text for that entry.

Gadgets

The gadgets are simple search forms that help find entries of a certain type. There are also crossword solver and conversions gadgets. The gadget forms appear within a box that by default is not shown. If the Gadgets menu item is selected, the hidden forms are displayed. The gadget window can be hidden again by selecting the close icon at the top of the window.

Login and Logout

The logout link will take you to a destination configured by your library, usually to a menu of other resources at the library. If you arrive at Credo Reference from outside your library, you may be presented with a library card login page or a user name and password login page. Links on this page can help you decide how to log in. Under most circumstances, you will want to follow the link to Credo Reference from your library's website; this will contain the necessary details to log you into their subscription to Credo Reference.