Tip #63: Customization of the new EBSCOhost UI: turning on EBSCOhost's Advanced Search Results Page

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One big frustration expert searchers have identified in the new EBSCOhost user interface (UI) is the inaccessibility of the search history when viewing search results. Never fear! You can now customize the functionality of the Advanced Search Results Page -- or at least, your institution's EBSCO administrator can.

The Advanced version of the Advanced Search Results Page (yes, we recognize that language is a little redundant) puts the Search history toggle between the search boxes and results, similar to the old UI, and offers some of the old search history options. The Search history here operates similarly to, but not exactly the same as, Recent activity in My dashboard in the left navigation sidebar.

When toggled open on the Advanced Search Results Page, Search history allows you to:

  • Select sets and combine them with either AND or OR using the provided buttons. (Just typing set numbers and Boolean operators in the search boxes also still works, no matter what search page you're on.)
  • Download your history with the down arrow icon.
  • View the databases searched in a set using the stack of coins icon. (This is not available under Recent activity!)
  • Perform other actions on a set with the triple dot icon: edit it, save it to a project, or delete it.
Search history on the Advanced Search Results Page

Because of the real estate used by the navigation bar, remember some options, like the coins and triple dot icons, may require side scrolling to access on smaller screens.

scroll to the right to see the coin stack and triple dot icons

One additional caveat is that bulk actions, such as bulk deletion of sets or moving multiple sets to a project, are currently only available under Recent activity.

Excited yet? We were! Visit EBSCO Connect to learn all about the Advanced Search Results Page and for detailed instructions on how your EBSCO administrator can enable it in EBSCO Experience Manager's Configuration application (it's number 12). You might also check out the other options in that same article, which covers modifications to settings like:

  • Whether to automatically clear search boxes after a search.
  • Which search mode is set as default (e.g., proximity vs. find all my search terms).
  • Whether to start at the basic or advanced search page.
  • If filters should be "sticky."

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