Firefox search plugin for the Seattle Public Library
When I found myself desirous of a Firefox search plugin that would let me query the Seattle Public Library (SPL) catalog from the toolbar, I was surprised to discover that I couldn’t find one. Alas, sometimes one is forced to do things for oneself. In an effort to promote literacy (and laziness), I offer my unofficial search plugin to the world.
What does this plugin do? It adds to the list of search engines you can pick from in the Firefox toolbar. By default, you get Google, Yahoo!, and other major sites. There are a plethora of other engines you can add. (One of my favorites is for Netflix.) After installing the plugin, you’ll see a new option in the drop-down menu next to the toolbar search box for the Seattle Public Library. If you select it, enter some key words in the text box, and press Enter, your search terms will be passed to the SPL catalog website where the results will be returned. Nifty! What could be simpler?
Now, this is a basic keyword search, and the results are sorted by publication date. This means you can put in a book title, or an author’s name, or whatever, and the catalog will do its best to return good results based on those words. If the results aren’t what you were hoping for, you have the option of executing a more advanced search right on SPL’s website.
A big thanks to Corey Seeman of the University of Toledo for offering excellent documentation on his search plugin.
Have fun, happy searching, and use your library!
For a related hack, try my LibraryLookup Greasemonkey script for one-click searching of books using Amazon and the SPL Catalog.