Bridging the Gap from Wikipedia to Scholarly Resources

BARBARA ARNETTWEB SERVICES LIBRARIAN

VALERIE FORRESTALCOMMUNICATIONS & NEW MEDIA STRATEGIES

LIBRARIAN

STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Bridging the gap from Wikipedia to scholarly resources:

a simple JavaScript search tool

Project History:

Elsevier 2010 API app challenge (for creative use of the ScienceDirect open content API)

Firefox add-on so researchers can search ScienceDirect from anywhere on the web, without going through the library’s website/ScienceDirect interface

Added functionality: auto-populate search box to encourage Wikipedia/Google users to expand their research to library resources

Issues: compatibility with other browsers search limited to ScienceDirect content aversion to add-ons due to Firefox memory-hogging managing code updates

Solution: Cross-browser compatible JS bookmarklet (inspired by bit.ly, etc) + Ebsco Discovery Service

Inspiration: Bit.ly bookmarklet

Install page

Bookmarklet in browser

Search prompt

Search results

Bookmarklet

Bookmarklet = Bookmark + Applet

In this case, JavaScript executed instead of a URL

Works on Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome

JavaScript code in bookmarklet

javascript:(function(){document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('script')).src='http://www.stevens.edu/library/js/search.js';})();

this executes JavaScript in a file that resides on our web server

Parts of the Bookmarklet

1 – Google Analytics tracking

2 – Prompt box for user to edit search terms – uses the Page Title for initial search terms

3 – Execute search in federated search

javascript that is executed in http://www.stevens.edu/library/js/search.js--

{// ***************** Google analytics code BEGIN *******************// var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-18930XXX-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async =

true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') +

'.google- analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();// ***************** Google analytics code END *******************//

var Ti=document.title.replace('- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia','');

void(Ti=prompt('Edit search terms:',Ti));if(Ti){var searchString='http://ezproxy.stevens.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&scope=site&type=0&cli0=FT1&clv0=Y&bquery='+(Ti);

window.location.href=searchString;}

}

More info:

Contact:Barbara Arnett: [email protected] Forrestal: [email protected]

Details:Presentation available at: http://slidesha.re/valebookmarklet Server-side code available at:

http://www.stevens.edu/library/js/search.js