Rutgers University Libraries Toolbar Overview

Rutgers University Libraries Toolbar is brought to you by Rutgers University Libraries.  It acts as a companion to the Mozilla Firefox web browser.    

Once installed, it provides instant access via a drop-down menu of links to the following resources and services:

• Rutgers University Libraries
• Hours and Directions
• My Account
• IRIS - Libraries Catalog
• Indexes and Databases
• Searchlight
• Delivery and Interlibrary Loan
• Refworks
• Ask a Librarian

The toolbar offers the following NEW functionality:

• Toolbar: The toolbar is a Firefox toolbar extension that allows you to quickly search IRIS, the E-Journal List and Google Scholar, along with links to other search tools and library resources.  It was written for Firefox and works best in Firefox.  The Internet Explorer edition has been released only as a beta version and is not offered to the public.  
• Right-click menu: The toolbar allows you to select text on a web page and right-click for a menu of search options.
• Embedded cues: The toolbar embeds a Rutgers shield "cue"   on search results in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Books, New York Times Book Reviews, Yahoo! and more that leads you to Rutgers's print and licensed e-resources.
• AutoLinks: The toolbar automatically links ISBNs, ISSNs, PubMed IDs and DOIs to Rutgers's print and licensed e-resources.

The toolbar makes uses of an open source browser plug-in called LibX. LibX was created by Annette Bailey and Godmar Back at Virginia Tech. For more information about LibX, please visit http://www.libx.org.  The Rutgers University Libraries Toolbar edition was developed by Mei Ling Lo, Math/Computer Science Librarian and Choong Hoong Liew, web designer at Rutgers Libraries.

Features/Usage of the Toolbar

1. Drop-down menu

The toolbar drop-down menu provides instant access to Library resources and services without having to start at the Libraries’ webpage. This information will open in a new browser tab.

2. Search box

The search box provides one-step searching in IRIS, Rutgers Libraries’ Catalog. You do not need to start searching from the Libraries’ webpage. Don’t forget to change the search field from title keyword to author, journal title, etc., if desired.

3. Rutgers link or cue in Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other pages

Use the Rutgers link on select pages to quickly search IRIS, Rutgers Libraries’ Catalog, for the item. Simply click on the  and the item will be searched in IRIS without any additional information needing to be provided. This feature is also available at New York Times Book Review, Google Books, and ABE Books (www.abebooks.com).

4. Right-click to search IRIS, Rutgers Libraries' Catalog or Google Scholar

Highlight terms on any web page, and use the right-click feature to search the terms in IRIS or Google Scholar.

5. Right click to retrieve a full-text article from PubMed

To "autolink" to a full-text article from PubMed, be sure to go to the LibX preferences in the drop-down menu.  [See item 1 above for further details on the drop-down menu.]. In the preferences box, select “Context Menu” then “PMID” before finally checking the box next to PubMed ID.

6. Quick access to full-text journal articles - Magic "Scholar" button

Highlight article citation information anywhere and copy it to the “Scholar” button for quick access to Rutgers University Library holdings. If the citation information is for a book, highlight the title and right-click to search IRIS [see item 4 above for right-click features].

If the article is not found at Rutgers, a Google Scholar page will display asking for additional information.

7. Right click to reload the web page through Rutgers Proxy server for remote login

 

Getting started on Firefox - Requirements, installation and removal:

Important requirements and warnings:

Firefox 2.x or greater on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Pop-ups must be enabled or permission must be granted during download, see details below.

Installation:

Rutgers University Libraries Toolbar is free and available to anyone for use at home or on campus. However, only current Rutgers faculty, students, and staff will have off-site access to restricted resources such as full-text of journals. 

To install the toolbar, go to http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/tools/toolbar/toolbar.shtml and select “Firefox edition."

Pop-up warning: If pop-ups are not enabled, Firefox will display a message (under the Mozilla toolbar) that reads “Firefox prevented this site (www.libraries.rutgers.edu or libx.org) from asking you to install software on your computer.” To continue, click the button on the right, labeled “Edit Options…” and click “allow” adding www.libraries.rutgers.edu to the list of websites from which extensions may be installed. Close the window and “install” the link again.

The following screen will appear on your screen.  Click the button OK to continue.  To fully utilize the features of the toolbar, be sure to check the boxes under "Privacy options."

After the installation is complete, you will need to restart Firefox for the add-on to take effect. The toolbar normally installs by itself.  However, for certain machines such as Eee PC, you can always choose to save the file to the desktop first; "right click" the mouse and then select "save link as". After saving the file to the computer, you can open the file with Firefox.  Restart the browser to complete the installation of the toolbar. 

To report a problem, please send an email to RUL_toolbar@email.rutgers.edu.

Removing the Rutgers University Libraries Toolbar from Firefox:

To remove the toolbar completely from Firefox, select Tools and then select "Add-ons" from the top menu bar.  In the pop-up window, click on "Libx Rutgers University" and click the "uninstall" button.

If you like the functionality of Rutgers University Libraries Toolbar, instead of uninstalling the toolbar, you can hide the toolbar by pressing function key F9 so that it takes up less space in your browser.  Press function key F9 again to unhide the toolbar.