I didn’t hear about this one at the conference but via an email from Jill O”Neill of NFAIS (Thanks Jill!). This browser add-on should be of interest to many of us. Firefox Scholar (aka SmartFox) is being developed by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Here’s what is posted on the site (http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/firefoxscholar/).
Due for beta release in Summer 2006, Firefox Scholar will help teachers, students, and scholars organize and cite materials they have found online. Comprised of a set of browser extensions, Firefox Scholar will allow researchers to recognize and capture metadata from online objects; collect documents, images, and citations from the web; and allow those materials to be sorted, annotated, and searched–all directly within their web browser window. Like the Firefox browser itself, Firefox Scholar will be open and extensible, allowing others who are building digital tools for researchers to expand on the platform.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
Wow, this one’s been slow to roll out! I vaguely remembered the name, and found these posts (among others) from the end of 2005 discussing the same product:
http://scilib.typepad.com/science_library_pad/2005/11/firefox_scholar.html
http://texadata.blogspot.com/2005/12/how-will-firefox-scholar-build-its.html
Hope it’s worth the wait!