VuFind makes use of external content from various content providers to make the interface a more rich environment for a highly effective research experience.

These features can be configured by editing the config.ini file – you will often need to enter your institution's access keys to get things working. To disable unwanted features, you can comment out the relevant lines in the configuration file.

IMPORTANT: Review content providers' terms of service before turning them on. Terms may change, and not all content sources are appropriate for all applications. The existence of functionality in VuFind does not imply suitability for any particular situation.

Currently resources that have an ISBN number will have a cover image displayed along with it. The cover image can come from a number of places such as Amazon.com, Syndetic Solutions, OpenLibrary, LibraryThing, Google Book Search, or your own collection of images. The decision as to which to use can be made by you, the implementor, by editing the VuFind configuration file.

NOTE: For using icons instead of covers for records please refer to the comments for getThumbnail() in the Record Driver Method Master List.

The review tab on the resource view page can display review content from a 3rd party provider. Currently in VuFind this is based on an ISBN number so it only works on Books. Eventually we would like to expand this to have review content on all resource types where content is available. Currently, VuFind offers connections to Amazon.com or Syndetic Solutions for review content.

VuFind currently supports displaying excerpts of items obtained from Syndetic Solutions.

VuFind has a web page for every author that is in the collection. The Author web page provides biographical information about the author so the user is able to establish some context about who the author is. Currently, VuFind provides content from Wikipedia.com.

We hope that libraries and other institutions who adopt VuFind will contribute enhancements and improvements to VuFind and through this VuFind will be able to offer other choices for content providers.

If you are a content provider and would like to see your products included into VuFind - please contact us so that we can help you include your products as an option within VuFind.