BetaZone

I just pushed out another update for the UNL Libraries search bar. Some people were having problems recently when they updated Firefox to version 3.5.2. If you notice any problems, please let me know. The latest version is version 1.5.3 if you are interested.

Some of you may know that Firefox released version 3.5 today. Our search bar wasn’t completely compatible with it, so I made a quick update and it should work fine now. If you aren’t offered an automatic update, then you can go into “Tools…Add Ons” and then click on “Find Updates” to force it to get the latest version. The latest version is version 1.5.2 if you are interested.

So last week I mentioned that might be some more search tools available this Monday.  Well, after working with them a bit, I’m going to have to say - check back next week.  The search plugins aren’t quite ready for a release, even a beta one.

I do want to say thank you to all of the students who stopped by Love Library last week to be part of our Invitation to Explore event.  I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction for our search bar.  The search UNL Libraries from other website, like Amazon.com, feature was  universally liked.  There are plans to add a few new features to that search bar, but if you have ideas feel free to send me an email or comment on the blog.

The UNL Libraries is developing some new tools and we want you to have the earliest access possible to them. We have just launched this new BetaZone website that will showcase projects and experiments using web technologies to deliver new services and access what we can provide to you.

Our initial offerings include a search toolbar that lets you search our ENCORE system at anytime without needing to go our webpage, as well as putting links in amazon.com results, New York Times book reviews, and other similar websites to let you easily find out if we already have what you are looking for available to check out.

There are also two new things that were ready for public consumption before we even launched this site. One is a Twitter feed that will lets you know if there are any major problems with computers in the public areas, as well as any other relevant UNL-wide computing updates. Follow it at http://twitter.com/unllibcomputers. The second project set up access to a UNL Libraries reference desk via Skype or your favorite instant messaging service over at our Ask a Question page.