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The paper aims to present an outline how libraries are harnessing browser extensions to provide an easy and convenient access to library resources and services. Investigating the features, purposes of use and types of browser extensions prevalent among libraries in different regions, the paper seeks to measure the degree of implementation of browser extensions.

Stratified sampling method was followed to select academic libraries, and convenient sampling method was applied to select public libraries from four continents – Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America. Two-step web content analysis was applied to gather data along the select dimensions.

The study contributes to the recent advances in application of browser extension with numerous examples focussing on the relevance of different approaches adopted by the libraries. Providing a framework of proportionate implementation along checkpoints, the study also highlights degree of acceptance of browser extension among libraries in different regions.

The investigation was restricted to libraries having English websites and confined to four continents only. This study aims at improving understanding among the librarians about the intended use and application of browser extension and helping them benchmark their effort in support of education, research and training. The current investigation expands the scope of future research on remaining regions and website whose contents are in non-English language to attain a broader perspective of its implementation.

The article may guide library professionals to use, develop and promote the implementation of browser extension in libraries. The checkpoints used here may serve as bedrock for framing questionnaire and interview schedule for conducting future research examining users’ perception of browser extension in the context of library resources and usage pattern, to fully comprehend its practicability and usefulness.

This study aims to explore browsing extension plugins for searching open scholarly literature and gain an understanding of the various available extensions, their functionalities and their benefits.

Instant retrieval of scholarly literature on the internet is challenging for any researcher due to incredibly accessible free and paid content, including various forms of resources, despite the availability of federated and discovery tools. This paper aimed to explore “Access Broker Browser extensions” available for quick retrieval of open scholarly literature. This paper explicitly explains browser extensions – Google Scholar Button, Open Access Button, Open Access Helper, Core, GetFTR and EndNote Click. Furthermore, the paper elaborated on the extension’s features, functionalities and usability in finding scholarly literature. This study found that the Google Scholar Button and GetFTR extensions seems more user-friendly, effective and easy to use on all internet browsers.

This paper identifies that the “Google Scholar Button” and “GetFTR” browser extensions are more effective than any other extensions and very user-friendly to use.

This study recommends that libraries should create awareness and provide training on access broker browser extensions for discovering scholarly open literature for learning.

Browser fingerprinting is increasingly being used for online tracking of users, and, unlike the use of cookies, is almost impossible for users to control. This has a major negative impact on online privacy. Despite the availability of a range of fingerprinting countermeasures as well as some limited attempts by browser vendors to curb its effectiveness, it remains largely uncontrolled. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper provides the first comprehensive and structured discussion of measures to limit or control browser fingerprinting, covering both user-based and browser-based techniques.

This study discusses the limitations of counter browser fingerprinting measures and the need for browser vendor support in controlling fingerprinting. Further, a somewhat counterintuitive possible new browser identifier is proposed which could make cookies and fingerprint-based tracking redundant; the need for, and possible effect of, this feature is discussed.

This study provides the first comprehensive and structured discussion of measures to limit or control browser fingerprinting. Also, it proposes a new browser identifier that could make cookies and fingerprint-based tracking redundant.

Aims to review some new developments in browser toolbars to enhance information searching activities.

A review with descriptions of new options for developing library‐specific internet browser toolbars to enhance user search options.

Several software development coding platforms are available to create toolbars, bookmarklets, browser extensions, and search tools for library applications.

This article provides descriptions of software development for internet browser toolbars and web gadgets.

A growing amount of information available on the web can be classified as contextual information, putting already existing information into a new context rather than creating isolated new information resources. Blogs are a typical and popular example of this category. By looking at blogs from a more context‐oriented view, it is possible to deconstruct them into structures which are more contextual than just focused on the content, facilitating flexible reuse of these structures: that is the aim of this paper.

The paper looks at the underlying structures of blogs and blog posts, representing them as multi‐ended links. This alternative representation of blogs and blog posts allows us to represent them as reusable information structures. This paper presents blogs as a popular content type, but the approach of restructuring Web 2.0 content can be extended to other classes of information, as long as they can be regarded as being mainly contextual.

By deconstructing blogs and blog posts into their essential properties, it can be shown how there is a simple and universal representation for blogs. This representation allows the reuse of blog information across specific blog or blogging platforms, and can even go beyond blogs by representing other web content which provides context.

This paper presents a novel approach for mapping a popular web content type to a simple and universal representation. The value of such a unified representation lies in exposing the structural similarities among blogs and blog posts, and making them available for reuse.

The paper seeks to highlight how academic libraries are harnessing widgets to make library resources easily and conveniently accessible to users. Examining the characteristic features, purposes of use and types of widget applications, the paper aims to measure the degree of implementation of widget among academic libraries in different regions.

A stratified sampling method was followed for selecting four samples of population, each representing one of the four continents (North America, Europe, Australia and Asia) and content analysis was used to collect data along the checkpoints.

Giving a comparative account of widget implementation along the select dimensions, the study focused on relative acceptance of widgets among the continents and emphasized the areas where widget is being applied most. With examples, the study also illustrated the relevance of the different approaches taken by various libraries.

The study was confined to selected libraries of higher education institutes among the four continents only. Libraries having non‐English websites and restricted or limited access were not included.

This unique investigation presented a comprehensive picture of widget implementation among the academic libraries across the world. The findings will serve as a valuable guide for future librarians who wish to incorporate such technologies in library websites. Furthermore, the checkpoints used here may serve as a bedrock for framing questionnaire and interview schedule for conducting future research investigating users' perception of this new web‐based tool in order to comprehend fully the practicability and usefulness of widget.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the problem of privacy disclosure of third party applications in online social networks (OSNs) through Facebook, investigate the limitations in the existing models to protect users privacy and propose a permission-based access control (PBAC) model, which gives users complete control over users’ data when accessing third party applications.

A practical model based on the defined permission policies is proposed to manage users information accessed by third party applications and improve user awareness in sharing sensitive information with them. This model is a combination of interfaces and internal mechanisms which can be adopted by any OSN having similar architecture to Facebook in managing third party applications, without much structural changes. The model implemented in Web interface connects with Facebook application programming interface and evaluates its efficacy using test cases.

The results show that the PBAC model can facilitate user awareness about privacy risks of data passed on to third party applications and allow users who are more concerned about their privacy from releasing such information to those applications.

The study provides further research in protecting users’ privacy in OSNs and thus avoid the risks associated with that, thereby increasing users’ trust in using OSNs.

The research has proven to be useful in improving user awareness on the risk associated with sharing private information on OSNs, and the practically implemented PBAC model guarantees full user privacy from unwanted disclosure of personal information to third party applications.

This paper aims to study the influence of emotions on security behaviour by reviewing Information Systems Security (ISS) topics in Information Systems (IS) literature. Researchers in ISS study how to motivate people to adhere to security policies; they mainly focus on cognitive models such as the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1985), innovation diffusion theory (Brancheau and Wetherbe, 1990), theory of planned behaviour (Mathieson, 1991) and social cognitive theory (Compeau and Higgins, 1995). Applying positive emotions such as joy and interest is feasible by adding emoticons and positive messages; we use this approach to improve password choosing.

We apply differential emotional theory (Izard 2002) from psychology to the context of ISS. Twenty-two participants took part in an experiment with the task of choosing strong but memorable passphrases. The dependent variable is the strength of the chosen passphrase. The task for the user is to come up with a passphrase that is both strong and memorable. We choose a between-subject design. The independent variable is the emotional interface that the user is confronted with.

We found that 5.35 words was the mean when participants were shown positive smiley faces and messages. When exposed to negative emoticons, the mean was only 4.35 words. Through ANOVA, we find the differences to be statistically significant (F1; 20 = 3.16; p < 0.1). We derive from the experiment that positive emotions should be used in ISS when making users start a habit (e.g. developing a new, individual password strategy), and we conclude from our literature review that negative emotions should be used when reinforcing a habit (e.g. taking care of shoulder surfing).

We contribute to practice by developing a user script that can be installed in all established Internet browsers. The script supports the user to choose a good passphrase strategy when registering for a new service. We find that trainings should not rely on facts only but must make use of emotions, which are crucial for human motivation.