Skip to main content

What if Users create their own search options? Netvibes examples

What if Users create their own search options? Web technologies allow actually anybody to create almost anything on the Web. Jenny Levine had this great example that stuck in my mind, about an RSS tool that a patron had created on his own website to see what library books should be returned and when. Mind you the Library just did not do it, and could not offer this to their users, although technology allowed it to create this option fairly easy.

Personalised pages/tools like Netvibes, Google Personal, Windows Live (does anybody got a complete overview of the options?) offer much more then just RSS-feeds in small boxes. People can link,use and create their own content and design their own search boxes (with a little skill). And the number of people who have this skill is growing rapidly..

In my opinion Libraries should focus on the users more, and therefore I created some Netvibes search modules to see if communities like it. Have a look at what is out there now!

Here's the list and downloads: Search Modules TABS (to share)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great tools! Thanks!

Popular posts from this blog

PubMed Search & News Widget

OK, I think Toolbars are great for quick easy access to search databases, free or licensed databases. Users can use this jumpstart search to get to their preferred search engines direct from their browser window. But not everybody is allowed to install browser plugins or add-ons. To distribute the Toolbar functionality like the search & news options, I create derived widgets that can be used as a whole in many social networks , websites and intranet sites, everywhere where it is allowed to put up html. The PubMed Search & News Widget is the latest one. I just got confirmation from Widgetbox that they approved it. "Derived" in this case, means, the widget is using the PubMed Toolbar installed custom searches and the installed rss-feed of PubMed New & Noteworthy . (re-published from NLM Toolbars Blog ) Tags: pubmed , nlm , search , widget , toolbar , socialnetworks Related articles by Zemanta PubMed Toolbar in the Spotlight (digicmb.blogspot.com) ...

Updates from Journal Apps (BrowZine, docwise, ReadbyQxMD, Docphin)

Here a short overview of all new updates around the Journal apps we are supporting. Personally I am most excited about the anouncements of " docwise " making big steps to keep up with BrowZine & Read (Integration -"Open in"- with Dropbox, Evernote and more, save and email full text articles), but making a hug jump with unique features, like shareable Folders with docwise users ánd a RSS reader feature (boldly called Google Reader replacement!). Bring it on! BrowZine : just published the Android Version of their App to which the CMB UMCG now has a subscription. To be downloaded from Google Play Store or Amazon App Store the following publishers have been added  Project MUSE Cambridge University Press American Marketing Association Academy of Management Royal Society of Chemistry Institute of Physics American Physical Society Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) American Geophysical Union International Society for Optics a...

Make RSS feed from any Facebook Page

You could ask why on earth do you want that....   Well, simply to insert the feed into a feed reader or make all posts/updates available in an "aggregator" like Rebelmouse.com.  With Rebelmouse you can create your own social media Frontpage (and blog) based on various social media accounts, searches AND RSS feeds. ( More on Rebelmouse and the power of curation  ) Say I want to add Facebook posts ánd images from the page Inuit Art Zone  into a Rebelmouse I made about Inuit Art . Rebelmouse offers to add My Pages via my facbook account, but other pages can only be entered via RSS. You only need TWO things :  the base url string for the RSS feed:  http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id= the Facebook ID of the page: Find the Facebook (Page) ID Add the ID at the end of the url string and you have a complete working RSS feed! For   Inuit Art Zone  the RSS feed would be: http://www.facebook.com/fee...