During the summer, the librarians at Brooklyn Law School have been working hard to improve access to our research resources. Many of the new tools at your disposal will be available when the new Brooklyn Law School web site rolls out later this fall. However, one of our new modules (which we call Sara 2.0) can be accessed now, off the library portal page, or directly at http://brooklaw.aquabrowser.com.
What does Sara 2.0 do that Classic Sara does not?
Sara 2.0 is a discovery platform to search the library catalog. Although it has an advanced search feature to help you find particular items, its main function is to help you explore your library space by recommending searches to you, and refining your results in a right hand navigation pane. For example, in the picture below you will see the search results for the keyword search: Professional ethics
- Screen shot of Sara 2.0
On the left side of the screen, you will see recommended avenues to follow if your initial results are not exactly what you are looking for. In looking at the star burst, you might be inclined to follow the subject “patient” to uncover titles that relate to medical issues. On the right side of the results screen, there are convenient ways to refine your search such as by publication date, formal subject areas (i.e., legal ethics) and by author.
On the upper right part of this screen, there is a grey link called My Discoveries. My Discoveries lets you tag items in our catalog with terms that are meaningful for your research. This could be helpful when you have more than one project going at once. You can tag all of your items for each project and keep them organized. When you click on My Discoveries, you will be prompted to create your own personal account.
Notice that for each entry in the results list, there is a hyperlink called Save or tag (if you are not logged on to My Discoveries, you will not see that link). If you click on it, you can create a new list (for example, ethics) or access an old list, and then assign a tag of your choosing to the item. You can also share tags with others on the system worldwide.
What does Classic Sara do that Sara 2.0 does not?
Classis Sara provides greater flexibility in its advanced search functions for high level research. By using that feature, search results can be very precise. Also, in Classic Sara, you can access your patron record, view course reserves, and gain easy access to other research tools such as World Cat Local and Google School.
