Computers in Libraries

Opac: The Next Generation: Placing an Encore Front End Onto a Sirsidynix Ils

In terms of record transportability, WorldCat Local offers patrons an individual account with the ability to mark, create lists, add notes to items, share lists with others, export and print lists, export directly to RefWorks, cite items with built-in citation styles at the item level, link to items with built-in durable URLs, which is great for direct linking from webpages, course pages, etc.

And the Winners Are ...

In this first episode of a four-part series produced by DePauw, the guy in the Google shirt asks, "Who needs a librarian?" His buddy quickly sets him straight by handing him the answer from (where else?) the library's visual resource center. In their pursuit of the final clue (shhh! hidden in a particular book), they visit various library service desks, eventually using the self-checkout system in their race to reach the finish line first.

Custom Search Engines: Tools &Amp; Tips

The basic steps to build one are fairly simple: * Sign up * Pick a search engine name * Choose a list of sites * Add the sites * Publish That quickly, a search engine can be created to search a specific portion of the web, such as local government sites, childcare resources, or historical archives. It is easy to create a simple customized vertical search engine as well as support much more advanced capabilities (see the Google AJAX search API article). Try these tools and tips and build a c...

Curating the Web: Building a Google Custom Search Engine for the Arts

Here's an example of the code necessary to call our CSE specification file in the head of our search page: var crefUrl = "http://www.cca.edu/ library/cs e-context .xml"; While we can't cover the technical side of the Search API in detail here, by consulting Google's API documentation and sample code, you should be able to find the relatively minor HTML and JavaScript modifications that are necessary to apply the API to your Stored or Linked CSE. Using collaborative tools such as Google Marke...

Citation Searching: Search Smarter &Amp; Find More

[...] for students in interdisciplinary majors, such as cognitive science, or for upper-level graduate students, it is equally important to know how the topic of speech perception is considered in broader domains such as medicine, biology, and perhaps even computer science or engineering.

You Too Can Build a Better Search Tool

Once again, the answer might sound simple, but by just grabbing the content of the page itself, and indexing that too (after stripping out HTML tags and script content), we got the parts that said "Joan" and "knitting" into the index. At first I thought that by just "putting the indexing out there," literally just indexing all the fielded data we had available in the records-the regular citation data such as author, journal title, article title, abstracts, and subject headings, along with ou...

Noted &Amp; Quoted

In this position, she will oversee consulting services for school, public, and institutional libraries, as well as training and professional development for librarians across the state. While in his regular department of digital library initiatives, he developed MobiLIB, library services for mobile devices, and FacetBrowser, a faceted browsing interface used to create customized booklist displays. Prior to his Fellow appointment, he was a graduate assistant in the School of Library and Info...

Editor's Notes

It's All About Search

It's a topic not unfamiliar to my content group at ITI, where we also publish Searcher and ONLINE magazines and produce the programs for WebSearch University and Enterprise Search Summit.

Online Treasures

Search Is the New Librarian

Welcoming Google Into the Reference Interview' by Jill Cirasella This is an article from Library Philosophy and Practice 2007 on the use of Google to engage patrons when conducting a reference interview. <http://libr.unl.edu:2000/LPP/cirasella.htm> Library Toolbar This is a blog on the use of customized toolbars in libraries-visitors are urged to exchange, share, and cooperate. <http://librarytoolbar.blogspot.com> Web Browser Extensions-Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki This ...

The Systems Librarian

Beyond the Current Generation of Next-Generation Library Interfaces: Deeper Search

In the traditional library metadata model, a cataloger constructs a MARC record; transcribes the title, authors, and detailed publication data; places the book in context through the selection of an appropriate call number; and assigns subject headings that best describe what the book is about. Soon it will perform very sophisticated retrieval based on the full text, leveraging context, position, and patterns in ways that approach the efficacy of hand-crafted metadata.\n This API provides a ...

Books To Check Out

Know Your Rights

Fundamental and Functional

FRBR stands for Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, which is a conceptual model designed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions to help users navigate catalogs to find the material and format they want.

Two From Neal-Schuman

Using real-world examples, Kroski illustrates how librarians can utilize blogs, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, and custom search engines to enhance their libraries' online presence and increase patronage.

Tech Tips For Every Librarian

Making Search Better for Patrons

Steven Bell writes in the ACRLog about an article in the November '07 issue of College & Research Libraries that qualitatively compared results students got when performing federated and nonfederated searches: [S]tudents prefer federated search systems ... because the search is easier and saves time. ... Using this, I can type imdb will em dafoe into the address bar of my browser, hit return, and my browser loads the search results page for an Internet Movie Database search for the actor...

Building Digital Libraries

My Search Enhancement Wish List

Yet at the same time, the library marketplace, not to mention university libraries themselves, could use a hefty increase in research and development funding for digital applications. [...] rather than assess the state of search, list every feature, or discuss the institutional politics of metasearch initiatives, I'll keep it simple and offer up my own idiosyncratic wish list for library web search enhancements. Both Google Books and Amazon serve visually enriched pages that show users not ...

Sponsored Content

Discover: It's Not About Federated Search, It's About Discovery

In collaboration with Groxis, Gale's PowerSearch Plus changes the game Launched in January of 2008, Gale collaborated with Groxis, an established San Francisco technology company to launch one of the most easy to use, easy to install, and affordable search tools available. While it offers strong search technology, accurate clustering and visual representation of results, usage reporting and more, PowerSearch Plus makes it easier for patrons to find your catalogue, databases and vetted websit...

Building a Better Search Query

Federated search is designed to help organizations meet this challenge, enabling users to simultaneously search multiple sources and quickly obtain relevant results using a single search query. Users often begin with very broad search queries, relying on the speed and extensive indexes of internet search engines, revising their query based on the results they see returned.

Primo Discovery and Delivery - Beyond the Opac

The university library is still there, but Heather and her peers are accessing its collections from their favorite coffee shop via their library's Primo® discovery and delivery system, which can be accessed from the browser search box, iGoogle home page, and college portal. The development of metasearch engines, enabling users to search multiple local and remote resources simultaneously, and OpenURL link resolvers, providing context-sensitive links to articles' full text and other library-de...

Taming Multiple Search Engines in Your Organization

It creeps in with add-ons to content management systems (CMSs), business intelligence (BI) applications, records management, document management, or knowledge management systems. Strategic Planning for Search One enterprise search myth is that all information in the organization should be accessible via search. Many business intelligence and content management vendors integrate search into their product suites with OEM relationships with enterprise search companies.

Feature

Simple Search Aids: With a Little Help From My Friends

The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, located on the National Naval Medical Center's campus in Bethesda, Md., is a medical education and research facility for the nation's military and public health community. In the September 2007 issue of Computers in Libraries, Stephen Brown, the director of our group, and I presented how we revitalized this early electronic resource portal using open source software. Using a combination of JavaScript, cascading style sheets (CSS), an...