Mozilla Firefox - A librarians dream tool

A million years ago (really less than two) I was using this ancient tool called Internet Explorer as my web browser. IE and I were pretty good friends. She guided me to the right websites, let me use Google to find my desired information, basically sustained me for many years.

But one day, I awoke to this amazing invention called Mozilla Firefox. What is Mozilla...not a large animal scaling a building towards a cute blonde, but an amazing technological tool that lets you surf the Internet and personalize it to your heart's content.

I knew there would be research on Mozilla, but I didn't realize exactly how much.

Rensberger (2005) talks about his introduction to Firefox after a conversation with his editor. In January 2005, Firefox had over 20 million downloads (Rensberger, 2005). Rensberger (2005) also points out Firefox’s speed and availability in 27 languages – this was in 2005, now Firefox is available in 33 languages (my quick count on their website).

Now don’t get me wrong, Internet Explorer is fine and dandy, but it isn’t nearly as helpful or cool as Firefox.

Alright, Traci – enough gushing about this little invention. Why can this web browser help me. Francoeur (2006) explains this much better than I ever could when referencing the add-on programs available through the free-open source Mozilla Foundation “these add-on programs ...turn an elegant browser into a handy Swiss Army tool right at the reference desk” (p. 166).

Okay, so what does this have to do with dissemination. Well, a lot actually, silly. The faster and easier a library or information science professional can find the information the better for the patron, and with tools incorporated into Firefox information is readily available for the informed and experienced information professional. Now, I know it isn't easy to change, but if you haven't - you are really, really missing out!!

Citations
Francoeur, S. (2006). Firefox at the Reference Desk. Library Journal, 131(20), 166.

Rensberger, D. (2005). Firefox: An Alternative Browser to Theirs. Searcher 13(5), 17-20

Side note: I was just thinking about this old New York Times newspaper article I read tonight. I remembered that I saved it to my favorites and went to retrieve it tonight. Funny aside, it was published exactly one year ago today. A hipper crowd of shushers focuses on the new generation of librarians and their love of information. With this new generation coming in (me, one day too, I hope!) to the library and information science field, there are bound to be changes and different technology incorporations. I mentioned in a previous post about libraries and their use of blogs and podcasts, but I've yet to share some of my favorites. Firefox makes it super easy to get your favorite podcasts and RSS feeds through Sage (a Firefox add-on) - another reason why I absolutely love Firefox!