My NCBI account settings can now be shared using a special URL, allowing you to create settings in My NCBI that your users can see without having to sign in themselves! This feature may be used to activate filter tabs and library icons, select an Outside Tool, and set a Document Delivery preference.

To test drive this new feature on the LinkOut Demo Library site go to:

LinkOut Demo Library
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?myncbishare=nnlm_psr)

At present, the LinkOut Demo site includes tabs for Clinical Trials (try searching for ‘chocolate’), English, Free Full Text, LinkOut Demo Library (the linked articles in this demo library), and review. We’ve also added the NIH Library through Outside Tool, so you will see icons for publishers, LinkOut Demo, and NIH Library.

To take advantage of this new capability, create a new My NCBI account, and click the “Institutions - share filter selections” box under Filters, Outside Tool, or Document Delivery. Only the settings for a service where the share filter selection box is checked will be shared. To avoid confusion, the LinkOut team recommends that you use your LinkOut user name as your My NCBI account user name.

Your settings can then be activated by entering PubMed through the following URL structure:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?myncbishare=username

where ‘username’ is the shared My NCBI account sign in name.

The LinkOut team also recommends, in order to add library icons to citations with free full text, that libraries use the following format for the URL:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?myncbishare=MyNCBIusername&holding=LinkOutusername_fft

To add your library’s name to a filter tab, log on to the LinkOut Submission utility with your library’s user name, click on Edit Identity, and type your preferred name into the box labeled ‘Display Name’.

The settings activated by the URL parameter myncbishare=username will work in conjunction with the URL parameter holding=username, which activates LinkOut icons. Outside Tool and Document Delivery Service settings in a My NCBI Shared Account will replace those set using the otool= or tool=parameters.

If a user signs in to their personal My NCBI account and My NCBI Shared Account Settings have been activated, the settings in the personal My NCBI account will replace the settings for the Shared Account. However, if a user registers for a new My NCBI account and My NCBI Shared Account Settings are already activated, the settings from the shared account will be copied to their new account. Users may then edit the settings in their personal My NCBI account. The benefit of this is that the new MyNCBI user can take advantage of all the settings you have already created for them. Great idea!

If you are developing a My NCBI account and want to test this new feature, be sure to sign out of your My NCBI account before activating the new URL. You will not be able to see it otherwise.

Settings activated using the My NCBI shared URL will time out after 8 hours of inactivity.

Let us know if you have questions!

Note: It might be confusing testing some of this out. To clear any holding= settings on your computer, enter PubMed through this URL:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=_reset