[LIS-Forum] Educate us on Firefox Plugins

[Sukhdev Singh]

Yes, Firefox is one of my favorite software applications. It is a web
browser like Internet Explorer. It is from Mozilla Application Suite,
managed by the Mozilla Corporation. It uses open source Gecko layout
engine and is compliant to current web standards. It is available for
free for most operating systems like Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Its
version 3.0 has been released recently on 17th June 2008, the day
hyped as "Download Day 2008".  It is a feature rich application,
however I like its add-ons capability the most. There are around 2,000
add-ons (plug-ins) available to extend its functionality. Most of
these add-ons are from third party developers.

Out of these 2,000 add-ons or Plug-ins, there are few which are useful
for librarians and library users. You may like to see "100 Essential
Firefox Add-Ons for Librarians" by Jessica Merritt. There are some
more lists of add-ons by librarians. Like the one of Teri Vogel - My
Favorite Firefox Extensions and he one by Jessamyn West - Pimp My
Firefox. However I don't feel all these add-ons are just for
librarians alone. Most of these are good for even non-librarians.
However, there are few, which are special for librarians. LibX is one
such plug-in. Libraries can create their own edition of LibX to
provide to access to their resource catalogues through LibX add-on.
Around 422 academic and public libraries have already done so.
Another interesting Plug-in is Zotero. It is an easy-to-use Firefox
extension to help collection, management and cite Internet sources.
There is a nice tutorial available for using LibX and Zotero in
combination.

Firefox also has a built-in search box on the Navigation Toolbar,
which has a drop-down box showing the available searches. These are
created using search plug-ins. Search plug-ins are simple text files
which are installed by adding them to the Mozilla Firefox
searchplugins folder. Such a search plugin can be created for a
library.

Librarians could experiment with thousands of available add-ons. Few
months back I had advised a librarian to use an add-on for display a
ticker for RSS feeds of current News. There are many more add-ons
waiting for getting used by librarians and library users.

I would advise to have a look tutorial for using LibX and Zotero as a
good starting point for learning about Firefox and Add-ons.
http://snipr.com/2o6wa has links to this tutorial as well as the lists
of add-ons mentioned above.

--Sukhdev Singh


On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 2:15 PM, Rajan <rajankila at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Shri Sukhdev Singh,
>
> It would be useful for many, if you point out the Mozilla Firefox Plugins
> that are  of much use to librarians.
> 'Stumble upon' and 'Zotero' are the two Plugins I am familiar with.
> Those who are so familiar with the emerging technologies and learn them
> easily, can educate the fellow librarians in developing their capabilities,
> as Mr Vimal Kumar helped us learn installing PMB, by using the Lis- Forum as
> a tool.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> K Rajasekharan
> Librarian, Kerala Institute of Local Administration(KILA)
> Mulagunnathukavu, Thrissur - 680581
>
> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Sukhdev Singh <esukhdev at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear Friends,>
>> Just to share a news with you.
>> Firefox 3 has been released yesterday. It can be download from
>> http://mozilla.com . There are number of useful Plug-ins available for
>> it. Because of these plug-ins, Firefox is my favourite and default
>> internet browser.>
>> --  Sukhdev Singh, NIC.
>
>
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