BYU

Harold B. Lee Library

Archive for the “Beta Tools” Category

  • Safari Extension: Books & More
    Posted June 9, 2010 by Ben Crowder

    Apple just released Safari 5. Among the exciting enhancements of this version, Apple is now providing a way for developers to extend Safari’s capabilities with plugins, bars and contextual menu items. People have been doing this for years using SIMBL and other black magic that lies beyond my comprehension. Getting started is a bit tricky [...]

  • RSS and widget for IR stats
    Posted May 24, 2010 by Chad

    For a few months now we have been keeping stats on the different papers and resources published in the Institutional Repository here at the library. This statistics just include a hit count for each resource. We have now provided two ways for faculty to display or view the number of times their papers have been [...]

  • A Simple Database Recommendation Engine
    Posted May 21, 2010 by Ben Crowder

    For years we have wanted to deliver targeted resources to our patrons. After much trial and tribulation salvation is finally at hand, our university IT department recently released a web service that allows us to securely view student class schedules. We are going to use this class data to deliver targeted database recommendations to students. Our first attempt at delivering targeted databases is going [...]

  • Mobile Site Updated
    Posted March 26, 2010 by Ben Crowder

    Our first incarnation of the mobile library site was very iPhone-centric. And why not? Over 95% of mobile devices accessing our site are either the iPhone or iPod Touch. Then we released another mobile site that was stripped down to accomodate just about any mobile browser. But we felt we could do better. We felt [...]

  • Recommending Databases
    Posted February 19, 2010 by Ben Crowder

    We have been promised access to student course data in the near future.  Thanks to the Blackboard Building block project we know how to map the various departments around campus to subject guides. Once we have the course information we can use the mapping of course to department and department to subject guides, to recommend [...]

  • Firefox Toolbar Enhancements
    Posted by Ben Crowder

    The library currently has a Firefox toolbar available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1799 We are working to enhance the toolbar right now. The next version will automatically scan the web pages you visit for ISBNs and tell you if the HBLL has a copy of that book. For example, if you are looking at books on Amazon.com the [...]

  • Interactive Maps Program
    Posted April 24, 2009 by Ben Crowder

    We have been developing an interactive interface that allows you to browse a small portion of our digital collections on Google maps.

  • Customizable Homepage
    Posted April 23, 2009 by Ben Crowder

    Serveral years ago we introduced My Library. Unfortunatley, this functionality does not exist on the main library website.

  • Build Your Own Subject Heading
    Posted April 21, 2009 by Ben Crowder

    Subject headings are an amazing source of information for anyone doing research. Unfortunately mere mortals often have trouble digesting the rich and detailed data found in these heading.

  • HBLL Personnel Search for Ubiquity
    Posted April 10, 2009 by Chad

    This project is to build a ubiquity command that will allow you to do a quick search for library personnel.