Content Type: Databases

The Libraries manages access to hundreds of research databases used by faculty, students, and researchers. The Databases content type in Drupal represents these databases.

How do I create a database in Drupal?

We automatically import databases from SIRSI each night. Any database that we manage through SIRSI will automatically get a node created for it in Drupal - you don't need to do anything special!

Acquisitions & Discovery uses CORAL (staff Unity login required) to manage database requests. During the requesting process, you'll have the opportunity to add Disciplines, Features, and Access Notes to help users understand what this database contains and how it can aid their research. You can also log in and edit databases after they are imported into Drupal.

How do users discover databases in Drupal?

Our databases landing page is linked from the homepage and in the main navigation menu under "Find & Borrow". The landing page, as well as individual database, discipline, and feature pages, are all discoverable via QuickSearch and Google.

What are Disciplines?

We use a controlled vocabulary called Disciplines to categorize databases by academic discipline/subject. This taxonomy is customized to NC State's college and department structure, to help students and researchers quickly find databases relevant to their field of study. View all Disciplines

What are Features?

Many databases contain special types of content such as government documents, patents, market reports, pricing information, etc., or special functionality such as searching by CAS number. We tag each database with any Features that users might find helpful. View all database features

What are Access Notes?

Some databases require users to create an account, use a special password, or even email a librarian in order to access the database content. Information about how to access and use a database lives in the Access Notes field in Drupal.

There are two different components of an Access Note:

• Login Info, which is specifically about how to log into a database
• Access Info, which is more general information about accessing or using the database content.

If a database's Access Note only contains Access Info, the 856 field will still contain the actual resource URL for the database, and the red "Access this database" button will show up at the top of the page as normal.

If a database's Access Note has any Login Info, the red "Access this database" button at the top of the database node page will not be shown. Rather, links to access the database will be included in the text of the Login Info. This is because we want users to read the login information before they access the database content.

In SIRSI, the 856 field for databases with Login Info will be the URL of the Drupal database node page - this is to ensure that any users reaching the database from the catalog will be routed through the Drupal database page which includes that special login information.

Some databases have Login Info that we don't want to be publicly shared. For these databases, the "Require Shib authentication" checkbox in their Access Note will be checked on the back end. On the front end, if a user isn't already logged into Shibboleth, a red "Login to access this database" button will be shown in place of the regular "Access this database" button, and no Access Note will be displayed until after they successfully log in.