Flaxman library streamlines its online search engine

by Simon Hunt

Looking for books and articles to support your paper can be an arduous task. First, you have to find someone to tell you how to get to the Flaxman Library. Then, when you get there, you realize that you have the library catalogue and 63 separate databases to search through. Who has time for that?

This year, that tedious process will be streamlined. Thanks to a piece of software called Webfeat, library patrons will now be able search all of the library’s resources at once. Readers’ Services librarian Holly Dankert explains, “You just enter your search term and check the box for whichever catalogues and databases you want to search.” In addition to a huge number of databases such as LexisNexis Academic Universe, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia and Art Resource, you can search the catalogues of all 65 libraries in the ILLINET statewide library consortium.

Another handy tool that is being implemented by the library this fall is called SFX, a database link resolver. If you are searching a database of citations, an S-F-X button may appear by your entry, linking you to other databases with more information, the full text of the article, or the library with a physical copy.

The SFX tool has already been implemented, and the Webfeat search engine will be available by the start of the fall semester. And, incidentally, the John M. Flaxman Library can be found on the 6th floor of the Sharp building.

September 2005