What's up with Factiva

Here is the vendor's reply to our question about folders.

Hi Dani and Helen - Factiva is an interesting beast, in that all clients get the same user interface, but depending on what market you're in, you get different content.  You've already discovered that with CanWest Newspapers.  Since Factiva.com is a company that focuses most of its efforts on corporate and legal clients, it leaves us in academic libraries with challenges.

The Track Folders were originally designed for corporate environments. In these environments everyone has their own account or every group or team shares an account.  They are their own administrator(s) and set up account defaults and options.  The Track Folders are then personalized for every account, which in most cases is an individual or small work team.

In an academic environment, the university shares one account by using the appropriate number of simultaneous users.  All simultaneous users see the same thing because they share one account.  That account in managed by an administrator.

Generally, in shared environments like your own, I have seen track folders set up that address common issues on campus.  The only way to get around this is - broadcast the admin account access and password (not feasible) or have a second account set up that is used by the reference staff and one that is used by the students.  I don't believe either are a good option.