Why is BrowZine recommended more to faculty and doctoral students?
It's not that undergraduate or graduate students wouldn't get some benefit from this tool, it's that BrowZine is simply not particularly applicable to their research needs. While both groups might find it visually appealing and easy to navigate, they will quickly discover that BrowZine is not searchable by keyword or phrase and will not return results like a typical database. BrowZine is designed to facilitate an experienced researcher to quickly narrow to his or her areas of expertise as well as known, ranked titles of interest. Its main intent is to assist scholars in staying current in their field of expertise by providing a reader with superior browsing capabilities.
What is BrowZine compatible with?
BrowZine is currently available via the web, the iPad, iPhone, Android tablets (Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy), Kindle Tablet (Fire HD) and Android Phone.
What's a BrowZine account?
A BrowZine account allows you to view the journals you’ve saved on “My Bookshelf” or individual articles you've saved in "My Articles" across mobiles devices and your desktop client. You do not have to use your insitutional email for creating a BrowZine account, however you will have to affiliate yourself with Molloy to see its holdings and if off campus you'll be asked to authenticate as you would have to do with any other restricted resource.
What's My Bookshelf and My Articles?
My Bookshelf allows you to save and quickly peruse the journals you want to read. To add journals to My Bookshelf, select “BrowZine Library” from the footer in BrowZine and begin searching for helpful journals. My Articles functions in the same way except at the article level.
I am affiliated with more than one institution. How can I tell if other institutions are also using BrowZine?
When you initially register for BrowZine, you will be able to see all of its current affiliated institutions in a drop down. Alternatively, you could also reach out to that institution's library and ask them. The next question will answer how to associate both with a single login, and thereby, only require one bookshelf to keep it all organized!
If I am affiliated with more than one institution, can I keep saved journals and articles on one BrowZine account/bookshelf?
You can! The answer to this question has two parts, so please bear with me while I provide an example and keep in mind it's actually a lot easier than it sounds.
Part One: Let's say you're affiliated with Molloy and a hospital, or perhaps pursuing a degree at another institution, and let's also assume you've already established that both places subscribe to BrowZine. While at Molloy - if you haven't already done so - set up your BrowZine account and add journals to your Bookshelf. Next, when you're at the other location access their BrowZine library, then log into BrowZine with the account you set up earlier to add more journals or articles to a single My Bookshelf or My Articles Account.
Note: Each library has an account number that appears within the URL; ours for example is https://browzine.com/libraries/1366/subjects, the number 1366 serves as Molloy's unique identifier and differs from any other BrowZine library. You can also do this from off-campus using each campus' unique URL, but you will be asked for your institutional username and password as you would for any database. Please ask a librarian if you encounter difficulty.
Part Two: It is important to note that each library offers different holdings and subscriptions. So, in continuing with the example above, if Molloy subscribes to a journal, but it's not available from the other institution, the journal will appear grayed out on My Bookshelf. In order to access it, you must switch to that institution's unique BrowZine identifier and when you do, the cover image will appear normally on your Bookshelf and you should be able to access full text.
Do I need a BrowZine account if I only use it on my computer (desktop client) or one mobile device?
No. Creating an account is not necessary if you only use BrowZine on a single computer or mobile device.
Why isn't every journal that Molloy has access to available on BrowZine?
BrowZine works by establishing direct connections to the publishers themselves, therefore, collections contained within database aggregators such as EBSCO and ProQuest may not show as available, or may show different holdings. Browzine has relationships with these academic journal publishers, so any journals included in that group and published since 2005 should be viewable.
BrowZine is also not designed for reading popular magazines or trade journals, it is intended as a scholarly reader of peer reviewed journals, so this might be another reason why a title isn't listed.
Students and faculty can always check coverage for any available titles, holdings and where they live (including print) by looking them up in our Journal Locator. More on this is further described on the Other Full Text Options tab of this guide.
Can I annotate articles?
Yes, just “Open in…” your favorite existing tool on your tablet or iPhone, such as PDF Reader.
Can I export citations?
Yes. BrowZine supports the following citation managers: RefWorks, Zotero, Mendeley and BibTeX. Additionally citations may be exported to DropBox, Evernote and EndNote. You can also share links to articles via email, Facebook or Twitter.
What if I see an article I want but full text is not available?
Even if we do not have full text access to all or part of a journal you can also seamlessly interlibrary loan it. As mentioned, some publishers prohibit current full text on recent articles. However, if you click on the article of interest you'll be offered an option to request it via interlibrary loan. Step by step instructions are included on the Other Full Text Options tab of this guide.
Who do I contact with questions or feedback?
If you encounter problems, have questions or comments, or just want to let us know to continue to fund BrowZine, please let us know.