How to create a custom Google Scholar search plugin for Firefox
Since I wrote this blurb a while back, that page has become one of the most-hit on this site. My referrer logs indicate that Google is sending people here due to their passionate interest in a search plugin for Scholar.
The quick and easy solution to searching Google Scholar from Firefox is to install the search engine plugin from the Mycroft Project site. That's it. Just click the link, hit the "add" button on the popup, and google scholarly to your heart's content.
There's another Scholar search scenario that requires a tiny bit more effort. If you are affiliated with a research institution or library, you may have noticed that Scholar will automatically return links to content in your library (full-text journal articles, bibliographic records, etc.) if you using one of their computers. If you would like to get this functionality from somewhere else (such as Starbucks or your home), you need to route your Scholar search requests through an HTTP proxy at your institution. Example: my institution is the University at Buffalo, and my library provides off-campus access through a proxy at https://gate.lib.buffalo.edu/.
If your institution provides access to a proxy, it's easy to build a Firefox search plugin that utilizes it for all your Scholar searches. Just go to the Plugin Generation page and fill out the relevant details. For my UB Scholar plugin, I just tweaked the default Scholar plugin URL from http://scholar.google.com to http://scholar.google.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu, and changed the name from googlescholar to googlescholar_ub. The XML of my plugin is available here for reference.
Good luck and happy plugin-making. Feel free to drop me a comment if you have any questions.
More strawbale construction fun
I dropped by the Mass. Ave Project again this weekend to lend a hand with the strawbale greenhouse being constructed there. The plan was to compress and plaster the bale walls. While we didn't quite get that finished, community members and friends had a lot of fun mixing the plaster with their feet. The Buffalo News stopped by, and caught me crouched on top of the framing as we worked to "cap" the bales with a wooden support structure.
It was a beautiful day -- the rest of my photos are here
Firefox search plugin for Google Scholar via UB
Just a quickie: Here is a Firefox search plugin for accessing Google Scholar via the University at Buffalo library proxy.
Google Scholar provides direct links to articles in journal databases if your IP can be authenticated as a subscribing institution's -- very convenient for on-campus users, but more of a hassle for off-campus users. This plugin automatically directs your Scholar search request through the UB library proxy. This is probably useful to no one besides me, but I thought I'd share.
Kudos to the Mycroft folks for making plugin creation so simple...
Building green on Massachusetts Avenue
Yesterday morning I drove down to Massachusetts Avenue to lend a hand with a strawbale building raising. I've had a longtime interest in green construction techniques, and this seemed like a great opportunity to learn and stretch my underutilized grad student muscles.
The project is a great example of broad community-based collaboration: local architect and UB professor Kevin Connors and his students contributed design and labor, strawbale construction expert David Lanfear provided his construction experience, while the Massachusetts Avenue Project provided the building site and general coordination. Approximately three dozen volunteers worked at the site throughout the day, mostly consisting of Kevin's students and friends of the builders. But there were several people, like me, who stopped by out of curiosity.
When I arrived, the foundation and framing was completed (apparently the foundation was laid last semester). Lengths of hose and tubing were set into the foundation about a foot under the surface, and my first assigned task was to run nylon webbing through these tubes. This webbing would then be run over the top of the bale walls, and cinched down tightly to vertically compress the bales. Unfortunately, many of these tubes had filled with clay and mud in the intervening months, and it took several hours to clear them all and run the webbing through.
After lunch, courses of bales were stacked and tied to the wooden frame. Two long pointed "needles" were threaded with baling twine, punched through the bales, then secured back to the frame. This is a lengthy process, at least for us greenhorn builders, and we had only finished three courses of bales by 5:00pm that evening.
The existing schedule states that the walls will be plastered next weekend, but it looks like that deadline might slip a bit.
There is a lot of negativity and pessimism in Western New York. It's incredibly refreshing to spend time with enthusiastic people who are working hard to make a difference in their community.
I always suspected I was imaginary…
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Ouch. Or maybe I'm just still flying under the radar? (this silliness via Pharyngula)