August 14, 2007
Search Blais From Firefox!
Want a shortcut for doing a title search in Blais?
Candace, our Blais coordinator, has created a Firefox add-on that makes it possible for you to search for titles in Blais without first having to open Blais and select the title search option.
What is the Firefox Search Bar?
This is the box at the upper-right-hand-side of the Firefox browser window that usually has a little “G” on the left hand side of it.
When you type in words in the Search Bar box and click Enter, your browser will automatically search for those words using the search engine selected and then show you the results in the browser window. For example, the “G” search will search Google. You can change the search engine by clicking on the arrow just to the right of the G, which will give you a dropdown menu that shows what search engines you have loaded. By default, Firefox comes loaded with Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Answers.com, Creative Commons, and eBay. Just scroll down to change the search engine.
How do I add Candace’s cool, new Blais title search engine to my search bar?
There are quite a few steps, but they are all quick and easy—promise!
1. Open Firefox
2. In the upper right corner of the window, look for the Search Bar. This is the box just to the right of the address bar:
3. Look for the little black arrow just to the right of the “G” and click on it.
4. You will now see a drop-down list of search engines.
5. Click on
7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and under Additional Resources, click
8. In the Site Name/URL search box, type Blais and click
9. In the center of the page, click on the
10. When asked if you want to add this search engine click
11. The Blais Title Search has now been added to your Search Bar. Happy Hunting!
Posted to blais | cool search tricks by jez at 03:06 PM
June 10, 2006
Extended Display option in Blais
this is way cool, and i wish it were a default. i should bring it up for discussion with the appropriate authorities.
in Blais, click on the 'extended display' icon above the search results in order to see additional location and status information that otherwise would require you to click into the item's record.
Posted to blais by jez at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
what is Blais?
Blais is our online catalog, and will tell you what is owned by the Claremont libraries. Blais is great for finding books and for locating print and online journal titles, and much more. you can do author, title, and keyword searching in Blais to find what you want.
author -- this can be one or more people, or a publishing body like, 'International Conference on Computers and Communications'
title -- usually the actual item title, but occasionally a series title, where a series of books share the same title. For example, Lecture Notes in Mathematics or conference proceedings
keyword -- this will search for words anywhere
subject -- subject searching uses the Library of Congress Subject Headings. every item is assigned at least one subject category, and this is a great way to find a variety of items specific to one subject area. See the Big Red Books for more info
journal cross references -- don't forget to check the title change links towards the bottom of your item record. journal publishers change titles from time to time, and the title changes are interlinked with either 'continues' or 'con't by' links
limiting your search -- limiting your search is a good way to sort out unnecessary results. the limit button is one of the maroon buttons at the top of the screen. some limit options are location, item type (video? journal?), or language
mailing marked records -- mark items and email them to yourself
example of a journal record doc pdf
example of a book record doc pdf
cool things about Blais:
preferred searches
featured lists
my Blais
Posted to blais | library 101 by jez at 09:10 PM