40 Useful Firefox Add-Ons for Librarians – Part Three

Add-ons from the Library

This is final installment of the 40 Useful Firefox Add-Ons for Librarians series, parts one and two are also available.

Libx Plugins

Libx plugins are add-ons which provide access to a library’s resources in some very unique ways including providing a toolbar and right-click menus for quick access to the library catalog and quick full-text access to journal articles via Google Scholar. The plugins also place library icons called “embedded cues” directly in webpages next to items the library has in its collection. For example you would see a tiny library icon next to books the library has on the Barnes & Noble and Amazon websites, or when reading a book review in the New York Times, etc. Click on these icons to check the availability of the item in the library catalog. So far hundreds of academic and public libraries have made LibX plugins for their collections. Install a Libx plugin for your library or get inspired to create your own!

	University of Michigan Libx Edition – The UM Libx Toolbar plugin enables you to search the Mirlyn catalog, SearchTools (for journals, journal articles, or databases), Google Scholar, and the library web site from your browser.
	MIT Libx Edition – This plugin, similar to other Libx editions enables you to search the MIT Barton and Vera catalogs, Google Scholar, the SFX FullText Finder and other search tools, as well as provides embedded links in webpages and a right-click menu.
	Duke University Libx Edition – The Duke Libx plugin allows users to search Duke’s online catalog, e-journals, articles, and databases, and Google Scholar as well as click on embedded links on webpages such as Amazon.

Library Search Plugins

	University of Pennsylvania Library Search Plugin – These handy add-ons from the Upenn Libraries will add Title, Author, Keyword, and Video catalog searches to your browser search bar located on the upper right corner of your browser.
	University of Pennsylvania Library Article Databases Search Plugins – These alternative search add-ons will provide your browser search bar with the search functionality from the following full-text journal article databases; Blackwell, Ebsco Megafile, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Proquest, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Interscience.
	Vanderbilt University’s Heard Library Search Plugin – This Firefox add-on will allow you to add a keyword search of the Heard Library’s Acorn catalog to your search bar located on the upper right corner of your browser.
	Brandeis University Library Research Plugins – The library at Brandeis University has search plugins for both their LOUIS catalog and their e-journal collection.

For many other library search plug-ins, this search of the Mycroft Project for library yielded over 240 results.

Library Toolbars

	University of Pennsylvania Penn Libraries Toolbar – This Firefox add-on for Penn students, faculty, and staff provides a toolbar with a persistant search box to search Penn collections, library website, and databases, as well as links to frequently used Penn Library websites such as Webmail, Ask a Librarian, Blackboard and PennTags.
	Access Sarah: Vanderbilt University Science & Engineering Library – This custom toolbar provides access to the resources at the Stevenson Science and Engineering Library. Search e-journals, databases, the Acorn catalog, as well as other catalogs such as WorldCat and MS Academic Live.

For thousands more add-ons, plug-ins, themes, and extensions, go directly to the source and browse the Mozilla’s Firefox Add-Ons page.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 10th, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under Libraries, Library 2.0, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.