LibX 2.0 for MIT  

Install MIT Lib X:

• LibX for Firefox
• LibX for Chrome

Browser requirements:

• Firefox 5 (minimum) or
• Google Chrome

After installation:

If LibX asks you to “select a LibX edition,” type “MIT,” select the MIT Libraries version, and you’re set!

If you have trouble installing it, follow installation help for Chrome or Firefox.

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LibX is a browser add-on you can download for Firefox and Google Chrome. LibX will give you easier access to MIT resources from anywhere. LibX will help you to:

1. Get access to journals easier and faster, especially from off-campus, by reloading pages through the MIT Libraries proxy. Watch a short video.
2. Find out if you have access to citations in a bibliography quickly by using LibX's right-click menu.
3. Turn the web into a library catalog & easily find out if books on Amazon, Wikipedia, and other popular websites are available to borrow from MIT Libraries. Watch a short video.
4. Search the Barton catalog, Vera, MIT's WorldCat, and Google Scholar – they’re only 1 click away from any web page.

Have you ever tried to view an article online, but you get stopped with an error because the web site doesn't acknowledge that you're from MIT?  LibX helps with that, whether you're on or off campus!  

Instead of having to do a search in Vera to find the article again, with LibX, right-click (or control-click on a Mac) to see the menu to "reload the page via MIT Libraries Proxy."  You may be asked to authenticate through Touchstone, and then, if the MIT Libraries subscribe to the resource, you'll be able to view it right away.

Before reloading through LibX:	After:

LibX places an MIT icon -  - in web pages such as:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Google
• Google Scholar (you must select MIT as your library in your Google Scholar Preferences)
• New York Times Book Reviews
• and more...

Wherever you see the MIT icon, click it to see if MIT owns the book or article.  Watch this screencast for examples of this feature.

Click on the LibX icon at the top of your browser to search Barton catalog, Vera, Google Scholar, and more.

You can search by multiple terms in different fields (author, title, ISBN/ISSN, etc.) by clicking on the down arrow  to add additional search boxes. The fields that are displayed change according to which database you're searching.

LibX adds more options to your browser that you can see from the right-click menu (or control-click on a Mac).  Highlight text on a web page or PDF document and right-click to see something like this:

From this menu you can:

• search the Barton catalog, SFX FullText Finder, and Google Scholar (try this with a citation you need!)
• get better on and off campus access to MIT-only resources by reloading the page via our proxy server (requires MIT certificates).

LibX was developed by Annette Bailey and Godmar Back at the Virginia Tech University Libraries and Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science.  For more information, visit the LibX website.