Blurring services and resources

Abstract

Over the past year, the Boston College libraries have been engaged in making available to our users two new resources, MetaLib and SFX. MetaLib is portal/gateway software that allows for simultaneous searching of several databases, as well as some options to customize the interface. SFX technology provides context-sensitive reference linking from citations to extended services. In this article we review the pedagogical, technical, and service reasons for making these resources available. We discuss how we believe these technologies respond to current student use of the library, and how we approached the installation process. We also review the challenges of the installation (both technical and service) and future possibilities.