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The public A-Z Database List page provides your patrons with a powerful interface to browse, search, and filter through all of your visible database assets.

• Filter by Name, Subject, Database Type, and Vendor. 
• Search for databases by name, description, alternate names, and more.
• Profile your New, Trial, and Popular databases.
• Call attention to specific databases with custom flags.
• Give your patrons additional context for your databases via metadata for types, vendor, access modes, permitted uses, and custom fields.
• Highlight resources that are the Best Bets in every subject area and provide links to subject-specific guides and experts.

To ensure that the display of your public A-Z Database list matches the quality of the resources that you are sharing with your patrons on it, you can use the Public AZ Page Settings to customize the look, layout, and content.

These settings allow you to make customizations to the main content (adjusting the alignment filters, and use of individual database landing pages), the sidebar content (adjusting the placement, the content in the sidebar, and the ordering of the content selected), activate custom ordering of Best Bets for subjects., and to include an alert banner that will display at the top of the public A-Z page.

Getting there

To customize the look and feel of your public A-Z Database list:

1. From the Content dropdown, select AZ List Management (Beta).

2. In the sidebar under A-Z Databases, click on Settings to expand the menu.
3. Select Public AZ Page.

Customize the main content area of the public A-Z Database List

In the Main Content panel of the Public AZ Page settings, you are able to make adjustments to the page title, intro text, and the alignment of both fields. From here you can also customize the availability of the search box and the filters on the public page, as well as activate/deactivate the individual database landing pages.

Main content area settings

1. Page Title: Set the text that will display at the top of the public A-Z page.
2. Title Alignment: Set the alignment for the title text.
3. Intro Text: Add additional text that will display below the title of the A-Z page.
4. Intro Text Alignment: Set the alignment for the intro text.
5. Search/Filters Options: Adjust what filters are available to patrons when they are navigating and searching on the public A-Z page.
   • Title: Provides a search box to patrons allowing them to search for keywords in your databases' titles, descriptions, alternate names, keywords and misspellings, and More Info fields.
   • Subjects: Allows patrons to filter the A-Z list to specific subjects that have been assigned to your databases—as best bets or as being associated with the subject.
   • Types: Allows patrons to filter the A-Z list to specific database types that have been assigned to your databases.
   • Vendor: Allows patrons to filter the A-Z list to specific vendors that have been assigned to your databases.
6. Use Database Landing Pages: When set to "Yes" each database displayed on the public A-Z page will have their own individual landing page—accessed by clicking on the database's title from the main list.
   • When this option is inactive, the link for a database's title from the main list will use the database's URL.

More information on individual database landing pages

When the Use Database Landing Pages option is active, every database on your public A-Z list will automatically have their own unique landing page. These landing pages will be where patrons arrive when they select a database from the main list and will include all of the publicly available details that have been added to the database—New/Trial/Popular flags, custom flags, resource icons, permitted uses, subject associations, database types, vendor, custom fields, the full database description, the More Info description, and the librarian review. With the content made available to your patrons about each database they can more accurately determine whether or not the database meets their needs before they leave your site.

Customize the sidebar on the public A-Z Database List

The public A-Z Database List page is split into two columns:

• One column contains the list of your databases.
• One column is a sidebar containing additional boxes.
  • New/Trials Databases
    • Listing any databases that have a new or trial flag assigned to them.
  • Popular Databases
    • Listing any databases that have the popular assigned to them.
  • Links & Widgets
    • Displaying the Icon Legend, LibChat widget, and Helpful Links that are active.
  • Subject Experts and Guides
    • Displays related guides and subject experts when you filter the A-Z list by subject.
  • Custom Content
    • Pull in content from boxes that have been added to your guides.

In the Sidebar panel, you can customize the placement of the sidebar, the order of the content modules, and what is or is not displayed in the column.

Customize the sidebar placement

The Display option allows you to choose whether the sidebar displays on the left or right of the A-Z Database List page, or not at all.

1. Toggle the Display option to No Sidebar, Left Sidebar, or Right Sidebar as needed.
   • When "No Sidebar" is selected, the main content column of the public A-Z page will occupy the entire width of the page.

Customize the order and display of the sidebar column content modules

You can add, remove, and reorder modules from the sidebar column of the A-Z page. This includes several default modules that provide your users with quick access to additional content, and custom content modules that can be pulled from any box from your guides. For example, if you created a box containing your library hours, you could add that to your A-Z page, as well.

1. In the Content Modules section of the Sidebar panel, use the options to manage the modules on your public A-Z list.
   1. Drag & drop any module to reorder it. The A-Z page will display the modules in the same order as they appear here.
   2. To remove a module from the public page, deselect its checkbox.
   3. To add one of the available default modules, select its checkbox.
   4. To add a box from a LibGuide click the +Add Custom Content Module link.
      • See below for instructions for adding a LibGuides box to the sidebar.
   5. To remove a custom content module that is no longer needed, click its Delete Module () icon.
2. When finished making your changes, click the Save Changes button.

Add a custom content module (aka a box from a LibGuide)

If you want to add content from a box from one of your published guides, you can use the + Add Custom Content Module link to select it.

1. On the Add Custom Content module, search for the guide that contains the box.
2. After selecting the guide, use the Content Box dropdown to locate the box to use.
3. Click Save to close the modal.

4. Place the newly added content module in the desired order and click the Save Changes button.
   • The newly added will appear in your list just like the default content modules.
   • You can reorder it the same way you do any other content modules.

Adjust the content displayed in the Links & Widgets content module

The Link & Widgets content module is comprised of three parts: the Icon Legend, a LibAnswers' LibChat widget, and the Helpful Links panel. While it is not possible to reorder these three parts within the module, you can control the display of each individually.

• Icon Legend will pull and display a list of your Resource Icons so that your patrons can quickly identify the context behind the icons that you have assigned to your databases.
  • Note: Only icons that have been assigned to databases in the public A-Z list will be listed.
• LibAnswers LibChat widget allows systems that also subscribe to LibAnswers to automatically display a chat widget of their choosing on the A-Z page to give their patrons quick access to help as they navigate the page.
• Helpful Links panel allows you to add links to resources that a patron may or may not need to reference as they look for database resources. This panel is made up of:
  • Acceptable Use Policy Link: Link to one of your published LibGuides.
  • Database Access FAQs Link: Link to the LibAnswers FAQ group home page that includes FAQs for database-related questions.
  • Database Trials Feedback Form Link: Link to a form/survey/quiz/tutorial from LibWizard that you use for database feedback.
  • Report a Problem Form Link: Link to a LibAnswers queue's question form that you use for database-related issue reporting.

Manage the Links & Widgets content to display

1. Icon Legend: Toggle this field between "Show" and "Hide" to set whether or not you would like the icons key to display.
   • Use the Preview Icon Legend link to quickly see how the legend will display when on the public page.
2. LibAnswers LibChat: Select the chat widget to display on the public page.
3. Helpful Links: Set the links to display for:
   • Acceptable Use Policy: Select a LibGuide.
   • Database Access FAQs: Select a LibAnswers FAQ group.
   • Database Trials Feedback Form: Select a LibWizard form, survey, quiz, or tutorial.
   • Report a Problem Form: Select a LibAnswers queue question form.

Activate customized ordering of Best Bets for subjects

By default any databases that have been assigned as a Best Bet for a subject category will display in alphabetical order on the public A-Z list (when the list is filtered to that subject). However, the first database listed alphabetically is not always the best bet of your best bets, so you may wish to set a custom order for each subject to ensure that the best databases for a particular subject are front and center. 

With custom ordering active, when managing the databases assigned as a subject's best bets, you can then place them in an order of your choosing.

1. While on the Settings > Public AZ Page, scroll down to and expand the Best Bets Rankings by Subject panel.
2. Set the Best Bets Order field to:
   • Alphabetically (A-Z): All databases set as bets will be listed alphabetically when shown on the public A-Z list for a subject.
   • Custom: All databases will use the custom order of best bets as set for each individual subject category.
     • Note: Databases will still be listed alphabetically for an individual subject category if no custom order has been set.
3. Click Save Changes.

Add an announcement/page alert to the public A-Z Database List

The Announcements/Page Alerts option allows you to quickly and easily add a banner alert to the top of every public A-Z page. This option can be used to alert your patrons (and staff) about an issue that affects your institution's databases—perhaps there is an issue with your proxy system or network connectivity problems that folks should be made aware of.

In addition to setting up this alert, you can also define alerts for specific databases to notify your patrons of an issue with an individual resource.

1. While on the Settings > Public AZ Page, scroll down to and expand the Announcements / Page Alerts panel.
2. Enter a Title.
   • This will be used as the title of the alert message shown to patrons and staff.
3. Enter the Alert Text.
4. Click Save Changes.