Library Labs

Where one can experiment with new information technologies and services. An OSUL 2013 Project.

OSU Library Labs: What Are We All About?

Posted on April 16, 2009 by eric schnell

The Ohio State University Libraries staff are always experimenting with new technologies and services that can to help make access to information, resources, and services easier. We have two challenges once we find something interesting:

- How do we make our community (you) aware of our experiments so that they (you) can take advantage of them?

- How can we organize our experiments in a way that they can be stored and discovered?

We brought a small group together to discuss these challenges and the result was OSU Library Labs.  We will be using OSU Library Labs to communicate new and experimental services offered by the library (usually Web-based, though not necessarily) so that the community can try them and, more importantly, offer us your feedback.

We will use that feedback to either improve the service before its “official” release, or help us decide if we will even offer a service. OSU Library Labs is not only just a place to house beta services, the project is a beta service in of itself.

Please subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter to keep up with our new services and tools as they are released.

Posted in Informational |

OSU Library Labs: Browser Search Extension

Posted on April 9, 2009 by eric schnell

Popular browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, have built-in search windows which can be populated with various search sites. OSU Libraries has made it simple for library customers to add the OSU Libraries Catalog as a browser preferred search site.

Why a Search Extension? Since the search extension is associated with the browser, the library user does not have to visit the catalog or library web sites in order to conduct a search.

How to get the Search Extension:

1) Go to the University Libraries main Web page. The code resides at this site.
2) Locate the small browser search box in the upper right hand corner of the browser (to the right of the page URL box). There is a drop down menu which exposes several search tool options. (see image).
3) After clicking the drop down, Select “Add OSU Libraries Catalog search”

2.JPG

Now, just enter a search term in the Search Bar and then select the OSU Library Catalog option from the drop down menu.

OpenSearch browser example

 

Can’t I Find This Option on My Web Browser? The extension is not available on all browsers, or on all releases of a browser.

-Additional help for adding this search option-

On Mac:

Opera:

Safari (OSX 10.4 and higher only):

More On Windows:

Chrome:

Let us know what you think: enter your comment below, or click here to fill out a one-minute short survey.

 

Posted in Search Tool, Utility |

OSU Library Labs: Please Follow Us

Posted on April 6, 2009 by eric schnell

Later this week, OSU Library Labs will be posting its first tool that can help to facilitate access to information, resources, and services.

Please subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter to keep up with the technologies and tools as they are released.

Posted in Informational |

Welcome to OSU Library Labs

Posted on April 2, 2009 by eric schnell

The Ohio State University Libraries are experimenting with new technologies to help make access to information, resources, and services easier. OSU Library Labs is THE place to learn about new Web technologies and how OSUL is meeting the information needs of it’s users.

Many tools included in the Labs may be in ‘beta’ form and still under development while others may be supported. We would like for you to play with them and tell us what you think!

Is a tool useful? What are the bugs and problems you found using it? What works well? What doesn’t work? Do you have any tools that you would like for us to share on this site?

Our first few tools will be posted in the coming days, with more to follow..

OSU Library Labs is an OSUL 2013 Project

Posted in Informational |