Getting Closer to Your Users With OpenSearch

Not so long ago we used to say "with only a couple of clicks" to mean effortlessly.

And when compared with catching a train to Wellington, walking into the 1st floor of the Alexander Turnbull Library, booking the reel of microfilm you need, waiting an hour for it to be delivered on a trolley, carefully feeding it into the microfilm reader, and fast forwarding to the frames you are interested in, it does still seem so.

As regular readers of this blog know, we have digitised 100,000 pages from the McLean Papers and over 60,000 images of pictorial material from the Alexander Turnbull Library, and made it all available to you, for free, on the new Manuscripts & Pictorial website. Yet still we do not rest.

A number of us here in the National Digital Library are never happier than when we are imagining new ways to get our collections even closer to our users. We think that two clicks away is one click too many. And so, today, we introduce to you the very simple, low-tech but quite marvellous thing that is OpenSearch, and offer up some search plugins for Manuscripts & Pictorial, Papers Past and even DigitalNZ, as well as a "general purpose solution" if you're a Firefox user.

So. It's a little-known fact that what we might refer to as "the google search box" in the top right corner of your browser can be configured to use any search engine you like. It has some options built in - if you're using IE or Firefox, click to the left of the search field and you'll find a pop-up list of search engines to try - but you can also add search engines to it, and most importantly you can add our search engines to it, and therefore never have to be more than one click away from our digitised collections ever again.

Here's how. Below are links to a number of search plugins that we have created for you; just click on any or all that you would like and your browser ought to give you the option to install them. You can easily remove them later by clicking or right-clicking in the search box, so don't be afraid. To use, just select the one you want from the list of options in your search box, type a word or two and press return.

Manuscripts & Pictorial
search all of the digitised Manuscripts & Pictorial Collections.

Manuscripts & Pictorial in Te Reo Maori
As above, but using the Te Reo Maori interface.

Manuscripts & Pictorial: McLean Papers
Search the papers of Sir Donald McLean within Manuscripts & Pictorial.

Manuscripts & Pictorial: Photographic Archive
Search the photographic archive within Manuscripts & Pictorial.

Papers Past
Search digitised copies of historic New Zealand newspapers.

DigitalNZ
Search New Zealand's digital content.

If you find these plugins handy, you might like to check out the Firefox Plugin Add to Search Bar which lets you add almost any website you like to your search box.

Lastly, you'll notice that I've provided a number of options for searching Manuscripts & Pictorial. If you'd like one that automatically searches a particular aspect of Manuscripts & Pictorial (eg Ephemera, showing 200 results at a time, sorted by date, using the Te Reo Maori interface) let me know by commenting below.

In the future, the plugins may also be offered to you automatically (through "autodiscover") when you visit our websites.

OpenSearch. Like a widget but without all the fuss.