Tips and tricks

This is the beginning of a collection of small tipps and tricks to overcome the isolation linux users suffer from at the EUI.

Tips for the library

Tip for access the server with the scanned files

Ebrary under linux

Librarian tips

With firefox

Maybe you do not know it, but Chris Hanretty has written a very useful plugin for searching the library at the EUI. It works with differents browsers (in linux and windows, but if you are windows user you will probably not being reading this site,...). You can find it here. Click on the title of either search plugin (Author or Title search) to add it to your browser's list of search plugins.

With konqueror

I have the impression, I am the only one who uses konqueror (with KDE)... but I always felt very good in the minority. In any case, I have also a very useful tip to search not only our library, but also other sites: the konqueror abbreviations (called Webkürzel in german).

There are many which are already defined per default. For instance: if you write

gg:merkel

you will look in google for "Merkel".

It is possible to create a new abbreviation. Go to Settings->Configure konqueror and look for these "abbreviations". Then you can add a new one in the following way:

Search provider name: eui-autor
search URI: http://biblio.iue.it/search/a?SEARCH=\{@}&searchscope=5
URI shortcuts: ea

With this, you can type for example:

ea:braudel

in konqueror and you will find the works of Fernand Braudel in the library.

For titles it is also possible:

Search provider name: eui-title
search URI: http://biblio.iue.it/search/t?SEARCH=\{@}&searchscope=5
URI shortcuts: et

And then:

et:policy

The most mervellious thing in KDE is the so called launcher. If you press ALT+F2 then you can also write one of these "abbreviations" (gg:merkel, ea:braudel, etc. [NOTE: you can adapt the searches, you do not need to look for the same terms like me]) and konqueror will open and find the site.

Scanned files

As you maybe know there is at the EUI the possibility to scan files which are stored in a common directory in one of our servers.

You can reach the files you scanned, either from the EUI computers or also from your laptop (theoretically also from home, if vpn is connected). This last method (from your laptop) is very important:

• it is very comfortable to look from the own computer;
• you do not need to get in touch with a windows computer, which is always a very useful hygienic measure.

In order to do so, you can open the following site:

ftp://192.168.101.118/Common/_ScannedDocs

and enter your username in this form:

iuedom\USERNAME

NOTE: this solution does not work for firefox. Reason? Unknown. With konqueror it works fine.

Ebrary on linux?

One of the most impressive electronic databases we have in the library is ebrary. But: as usual, it is a proprietary solution which tries to ignore not only linux, but in general (and most important) open formats. If you try to read the books they offer with your fresh firefox installation under linux, you will soon see that it does not work.

But, there is a solution! (are you surprised?). The solution is called: wine.

How to read books from ebrary on your linux system, is very easy:

1. You have to install wine. Open synaptic, search for wine and select it. Easy, isn't it? (well, I have to admit: the universe repository must be active under ubuntu...)
2. You have to download the windows version of firefox (not the linux version, which will be in any case already installed!). Go here and be aware you select the windows version
3. I think the installation of the windows firefox will begin automatically with wine. Otherwise open a console:

cd THEDIRECTORY
wine Firefox Setup 3.0.4.exe

4. Now firefox should appear in your menu under wine. Open the windows version of firefox, go to this site
5. The last step is to download the plugin for ebrary, and you can begin to read books from ebrary!