Tuesday, 26 July 2011

#cam23, Extra Thing 4: Libraries widget

I tried out the Cambridge Libraries Widget last summer, and the RSS feed and Calendar feeds when they were launched. I can see that they'll be really useful to some people, but somehow they just don't do it for me.

So I'm going to tell you about something that I do use a lot, and is applicable to readers outside the Cambridge bubble. Did you know that you can customize the search box in your browser? And did you know that Copac (the UK National, Academic, and Specialist Library Catalogue) is one of the things you can add?

How to add the COPAC search to your browser
  1. Go to http://copac.ac.uk/, click on 'Interfaces' on the right hand side, and then 'Search Copac from your Web browser search bar using 'plugins' (or follow this link to go there directly).
  2. Click on the type of search you'd like to add.
  3. That's it!
  4. You should now be able to choose the COPAC option from your browser search box.
  5. You can edit you search box and add/remove search providers. In Internet Explorer go to Tools>Internet Options>'Settings' next to 'Change search defaults'. In Firefox, click on the drop-down arrow in the search box and then on 'Manage Search Engines'.
  6. If there are other sites you search frequently, it's worth having a look around to see if they have a browser search option.  As well as Wikipedia and Amazon, I have a German dictionary and the OED, in my search box and and Oxford Dictionary of National Biography search that runs from the bookmarks toolbar.
I'd love to hear of any favourite search box/bookmarks toolbar tools that you use.
Posted by Katie Birkwood at 14:01
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4 comments:

  1. Ed Chamberlain28 July 2011 at 18:05

    Katie,
    You can also do this with LibrarySearch!

    Best

    Ed x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katie Birkwood29 July 2011 at 10:09

    Thanks Ed.

    (If anyone else is interested, the LibrarySearch will be automatically by your browser when your on the LibrarySearch pages - just have a look at the search box drop-down and there'll be an option to add it.

    You can also get a keyword search for Newton, from here: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/opensearch.html.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Annie Gleeson15 September 2011 at 12:49

    I'm going back to look at Cam23 blog posts as we're wrapping up, and just spotted the comments on this which are mega useful!

    It's cleared up a mystery for me - I've recently moved to a different desk and Firefox on my new PC has a Creative Commons search in the drop down, it wasn't on my old PC and I didn't know it was possible before, so I've been trying to figure out how to get it on my laptop. Turns out the "add Creative Commons search" option appears in the drop down when I'm on the page :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Katie Birkwood15 September 2011 at 16:50

    Happy to help, Annie :)

    ReplyDelete

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