MIT Libraries News

Did you know there are many ways to access the licensed copies of e-journals that we subscribe to? The methods below work from anywhere as long as you have MIT certificates installed or are using MIT’s VPN client.

1. Go to Vera and type the title in the search box.
(Our database called “Vera” has been the primary way to access e-journals since 2000).

2. Go to http://libraries.mit.edu/ejournals and type the title in the search box
(This page is part of a new version of Vera, which is currently in beta).

3. Go to our Full Text Finder: http://libraries.mit.edu/fulltext
If you have a complete citation to an article, you can enter it and go directly to the article (in most cases).

4. Search for an article using Google Scholar. Set your preferences to say that you want the MIT Libraries links. Then follow links that say “full text - MIT Libraries.” For details, see Making Google Scholar work for you. (Google Scholar does not index ALL of our licensed e-journals, so try Vera if you don’t find it in Google Scholar).

5. Go directly to the journal’s web site. Insert our proxy server string by typing it in front of the URL and then reload the page. See: Manually inserting the proxy string.

6. Install our bookmarklet in your browser toolbar. Go to the journal web site and then click on the bookmarklet, which inserts the proxy string automatically. See Inserting the proxy string with a bookmarklet.

7. In Firefox, install our LibX toolbar. Go directly to a journal’s web site. Right click on the page and select “reload this page via MIT Libraries’ proxy.” See a video of how this works. (A version of LibX for Internet Explorer is under development).

8. In Firefox, install our search toolbar widget for Vera:
see: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html?name=MIT+vera
For more info, see: Search for journals in Vera with the new Firefox search bar.

9. If you install MIT’s VPN client and log in before you visit a journal’s web site, you will be able to access our subscription e-journals. (It will see you as if you are coming from ON CAMPUS). See VPN: an alternative off-campus option. With this method, #5, 6, and 7 above are not needed.

10. Within our licensed databases, such as Web of Science or SciFinder Scholar, look for buttons that say “Get this - MIT”. Those links will take you directly to our licensed copies of articles using our “open URL resolver” which is called SFX. To see a list of our licensed databases, see Vera shortcuts.

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These methods work only if you are ON CAMPUS:
1. Go to our Barton catalog and search for the title. Links in Barton work only from ON-CAMPUS . (A project to change this is in the works).

2. Go directly to the journal’s web site.
If you’re ON campus, and we have a subscription, you’ll get in (in most cases).

Did you know that you can add search engines to your Firefox toolbar? You can also add a search engine to your Firefox browser to search Vera, the collection of online journals and databases in the MIT Libraries.

To download the search bar, visit the MIT Vera search plugin page.

Note: This search plugin will only work with the Firefox web browser, and you will need to have MIT web certificates.

Special thanks to John Hawkinson for developing the plugin!

LibX is a handy tool that many members of the MIT community use already… Learn what it can do for you in this new video tutorial.

What is LibX, anyway?

• Toolbar: LibX is a Firefox toolbar that allows you to quickly search the Barton catalog, Vera, Google Scholar, the SFX FullText Finder and other search tools
• Right-click menu: when you have installed LibX you can highlight text on a web page or PDF and right-click for a menu of search options
• Embedded links: LibX will also embed links on search results in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Scholar, NYT Book Reviews, and more that will lead you to MIT-only resources

For more information, check out the LibX - MIT edition guide.

If you’re often off-campus, and you need to get your browser to route you through the Libraries’ proxy server, you may want to add a bookmarklet button to your Firefox browser to enable quicker access.

When you’re on a web page that you’d like to redirect through the Libraries’ proxy server, clicking this button will automatically reload the web page. To add the button, follow our FAQ on Inserting the Proxy String with a Bookmarklet.

Check out more MIT Libraries’ betas!

Today we’re making available to the MIT community a beta release of a new version of Vera, called Vera Multi-Search.

http://libraries.mit.edu/vera-beta (MIT only)

This version of Vera adds the ability to simultaneously search several databases at once, such as Web of Science, Proquest Research Library, and Barton: MIT Libraries’ Catalog.

It’s designed to help you start your library research more quickly by showing you which databases have the most hits for your query and displaying the merged results, so that you don’t have to search each database separately.

The old Vera (which lists our all of our databases and e-journals) is still available to use during the beta period. We’re offering an early look at the new Vera while we’re still developing it, so that we can get feedback from the MIT community and conduct usability tests.

To volunteer to particpate in usability tests, or to send feedback and comments, email: webmaster@libraries.mit.edu.

The MIT Libraries have customized an open-source, Firefox toolbar, called LibX, that makes accessing journal articles from off campus much easier. LibX also allows you to search the Barton catalog, Vera, Google Scholar, and the SFX FullText Finder quickly. For more information and to install LibX, check out the LibX - MIT edition guide, or watch a short video tutorial on how to use LibX to access resources from off-campus.

Already using the LibX toolbar for the MIT Libraries? You may have already noticed that there is a new version that provides minor upgrades in functionality. If Firefox hasn’t prompted you to update LibX, you can manually update LibX.

Questions or comments? Contact us!

Two new beta gadgets make searching resources of the MIT Libraries even easier! A new Facebook application and Google gadget will allow you to search the Libraries directly from your personal pages.

Facebook Application:

The Facebook application contains search boxes for the Barton web catalog and for Vera, the collection of online journals and databases, along with links to Your Account and Ask Us for research help.

If you already have a Facebook account, you’re only a few clicks away from adding the MIT Libraries application.

Google Gadget:

Did you know that you can personalize your Google homepage? Now, you can add a gadget to your Google page to search the collections of the MIT Libraries!

To add this gadget to your Google homepage, click this button:

You can also embed the gadget on any other webpage that you’ve created.

Thanks to Amy Stout, Nicole Hennig, Rob Wolfe, and Todd Rautenberg for developing these applications.

Want an efficient and informative way to select and organize your classes for the upcoming semester? The Course Pickr is is an interactive tool designed to help students organize their class schedules. It was developed at CSAIL by the Haystack Project, and is based on technology from Project SIMILE, a joint project of CSAIL and the MIT Libraries Digital Library Research Group (DLRG).

Students have access to course descriptions, times, locations, and data such as difficulty and units. Using a calendar, students can build schedules that allow them to see potential scheduling conflicts. The final calendars are easily printable for future reference.

Please note: this tool is in beta; consult MIT’s course catalogue for official data.

For more information, contact Amy Stout, astout@mit.edu.

The MIT Libraries have just launched a series of new online videos that can help you learn how to use the tools and resources of the libraries. Learn how to:

• renew books online and see what books you have checked out
• identify useful articles for research papers and locate the full text
• learn how to search article databases effectively (and why you are missing out if you just use Google)
• find books and other materials using the Barton catalog
• learn about all the different libraries on campus

We will be adding new videos over time - let us know what other topics you would like to see covered! There is a quick survey at the end of each tutorial - we’d like to know what you think of the videos and how they work as a medium for learning this information, so please give us your feedback!

If you have any questions, please contact: tutorials-lib@mit.edu

This summer we are working on a new version of the Vera database, which lists the MIT Libraries’ e-journals and research databases. Vera has been in its current form since 2001 and has served us well in a basic way. Now the time has come to add features and improve the interface.

New in this version of Vera will be the ability to search multiple databases simultaneously. For example, you will be able to search our Barton catalog, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Proquest Research Library all at once with the results merged. We will also provide groupings of appropriate databases to search together for several broad subject areas: Art & Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Management & Business, Science, and Social Sciences.

Watch this space for announcements of a beta version that you can give us feedback on later this summer. We will be looking for volunteers to participate in usability tests in August/September. Send email to webmaster@libraries.mit.edu if you would like to volunteer or if you have any comments.

To integrate our resources with the social bookmarking system “del.icio.us”, we have recreated our Virtual Reference site there. Del.icio.us users can easily add us to their network to keep up with new resources being added to the site. An RSS feed is provided for for users who wish to subscribe.

The Virtual Reference Collection page on our site is being enhanced as well: We are using a tool called “FeedDigest” to send the links from our del.icio.us account via RSS into our web page. This makes it easier for the librarians authoring the page to keep it up to date. They simply enter new links into the del.icio.us account, and FeedDigest provides the glue that makes them also appear on our web page.

Video tutorials for instruction on topics such as database searching and evaluating information are being created, and more will come.

A beta of this project was conducted in the Fall of 2006 with tutorials for students in the class 3.091/3.093. Feedback from those students will help us as we create more tutorials.

Watch our space in MIT’s TechTV for future video content. (MIT’s TechTV is itself a beta!)

What’s the big deal about open access anyway? If I’m writing an article, what rights should I keep? Where can I find out more?

Check out http://libraries.mit.edu/open-access to find out what’s happening nationally and beyond, and http://libraries.mit.edu/rights to find out how to retain your rights and increase the impact of your research.

Look for these posters showing current Open Access Models at the Engineering and Science Libraries (Barker, Hayden, Lindgren and Aero/Astro).

A new page on our web site gives information on some useful Firefox extensions for library research. Learn about LibX, smart keywords, BookBurro, Zotero, and how to add search engines to the Firefox toolbar. See Browser Extensions and Toolbars for Library Research. Additional information is available in the course outline for our recent IAP class: Library toolbars, extensions and web apps: little tools with big impact.

Check out the latest and greatest books that have recently arrived in the MIT Libraries!

See: Recent Additions to the Collections

We have RSS feeds for all different subjects - you can even find out about new music CDs and DVDs. Don’t know what RSS is or how to use it? No problem - you can simply view new items via the link above. You can also have lists of new items emailed to you on a regular basis.

If you would like to learn more about RSS:

• see our RSS guide
• attend our IAP class: Keeping Current: Using RSS Feeds to Stay Ahead in Your Research
• see also our feeds for MIT Libraries news RSS feeds by topic

Try out our newest library beta: the Humanities Virtual Browsery has been revamped as a blog.

Browse new books online (just like the old Virtual Browsery), but take advantage of these new features:

• an RSS feed
• the ability to comment on books, and discuss them with the rest of the MIT community
• links to informative book reviews
• information about the availability of the book in the Humanities Library
• links to other books by the same author

Check out our other Library Betas!

Try our new beta information tool - LibX!

LibX is a Firefox toolbar you can download that allows you to quickly search the Barton catalog, Vera, Google Scholar, the SFX FullText Finder and other search tools. It also embeds links to MIT-only resources in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Scholar, NYT Book Reviews, and more. It can also help you connect from off-campus, quickly track down the full text of citations and more.

So try it out - let us know what you think! LibX is still in beta mode, so we’d like to get feedback on what worked well, what didn’t and how useful a tool you find it.

To get more information and to download: LibX - MIT Edition

To check out other new beta tools from the MIT Libraries, see our Betas page.

The MIT Libraries are experimenting with new technologies to help make access to information easier. Try out the tools on the page below - they are still being tinkered with, but we’d like you to try them out and tell us what you think!

MIT Libraries’ Betas web site: http://libraries.mit.edu/betas

The site is offered in much the same spirit as Google’s technology playground: Google Labs. It’s a place to explore, share information, and give feedback.

A hallmark of betas is that they are somewhat rough and experimental, so these tools will not come with technical support, help desk numbers, or user manuals. But we’d still love to hear what you think, where you ran into problems, what could work better, etc.

Feel free to send questions or comments to betas-lib@mit.edu.