Jason and The Toolbars of Terror

This really doesn't have much to do with Learning 2.0, but seeing as how there are quite a few Circulation people (Go, Circ, Go!) who are participating, I thought I might throw this up for my brothers and sisters of the Sacred Book Cart.

Since the merging of Circ and Reference under the banner "Information Services", I find myself doing a lot of new searches during my desk shift days. Lucky for me, I was used to many of these requests due to my stellar training by Angie and The Night Staff (which is a band name, if I've ever heard one) when I first started here at Becker. As I continue to grow as a Circulation Asssistant, as well as a member of the library staff in general, I am constantly looking for new ways to help my patrons faster and more efficiently with the same amount of accuracy. Here are a few things I've picked up.

I'm a big proponent of the Firefox Web Browser. I'm sure you've fooled with it a little, as it's installed on all the machines now. It may not be the stalwart work horse or the fastest and sleekest out there, but for my needs at the Information Services Desk, it's perfect. For instance, let's look at the Bookmarks Toolbar.

The Bookmarks Toolbar is the little bit of browser real estate just underneath the Location Bar, or the bar you type your web addresses into. You can fill it with anything you'd like for quick access to your favorite sites, or just sites you go to a lot. Here's what mine looks like.

(Just a note. This is what my Firefox looks like when I log in with my network login and password. You may want to clear any changes you make to ANY browser under the General Login with your co-workers, as they'll have to use the machine at some point after you.)

My first five slots are solely for Becker use. First up, we have a link to the BACS login page, the portal to the most used site of my day. Next, the link to the front page of our fair library. This is so that I have quick access to not only general information about Becker, but to the Quick Links Bar.

The next three are specific links to the Journals, the Books and Audiovisuals, and the Databases search pages. Naturally, if I'm instructing a patron on how to use the website, I won't use these. If I'm dealing with a phone call or a patron who just needs some quick information, I have the ability to go directly to the search page I need with no typing or extra clicking. Just one click gets me to the page I need.

Another great feature of Firefox is the customizable Search Bar located at the top right corner of the browser. Mozilla, the company that offers Firefox, offers hundreds of search engine plug-ins for websites ranging from Google and Definr to geek-fu sites like GameFAQs. A handful of websites we use here at Becker can be accessed through the search bar. Let's have a look at mine.

You'll notice right there near the top is PubMed, the search tool I think we all use a fair amount of the time as far as Circ goes. It works exactly like the search bar on the home page of PubMed works, too, which is pretty gee golly fancy, if you ask me. MedLine Plus, the Cochrane Library, UpToDate, even the dreaded Google Scholar (which has helped me out plenty when all else has failed) are also available, should you be so inclined.

The search extensions are easy to install. You can click the links above to get to their specific page, or go to http://mycroft.mozdev.org and search for the plug-in you want to find. Click on the title of the plug-in you want, tell Firefox you really and truly do want to install it, then test it out.

So, there you go. Of course, your mileage is gonna vary on how much you'll want to use this stuff, if you want to use it at all. And if you don't, that's totally cool. There's nothing wrong with doing it the way we've always done it. These are just a few little things you may find useful out there on the front lines of library service.