About LibKey Nomad
On Monday, February 26th, 2024, the Claire T. Carney Library, in collaboration with CITS, began pushing the LibKey Nomad Chrome and Edge extensions to all university-owned Windows workstations. If you want to learn more about LibKey Nomad, check out the information below.
If you have questions, please contact libsys@umassd.edu.
What is LibKey Nomad?
LibKey Nomad is a browser extension from Third Iron that provides one-click access to full-text library resources from websites such as PubMed, Wikipedia and Scholarly Publisher Websites. LibKey Nomad makes accessing library resources a lot easier, especially when you start your research outside the library.
After the LibKey plugin is installed, if you run a search on a site like PubMed, or even look at citations in Wikipedia, you’ll see Third-Iron-generated links connecting researchers to library materials. You will also see links to LibKey links on many publisher sites, simplifying full text access.
Check out the first minute of this short video for a brief overview of LibKey Nomad:
What does LibKey Nomad look like?
LibKey Nomad will appear as links on select research sites that will connect you to full text library resources.
Here are a few examples of how LibKey Nomad may appear:
Example #1: PubMed
Example #2: Wikipedia References
Example #3: Publisher Websites
How do I install LibKey Nomad on my personal computer?
The LibKey Nomad extension is currently available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi browsers.
Download LibKey Nomad from Third Iron
When you install the extension, you must agree to anonymous data collection and select University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as your organization. The extension does not require a login, and it doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information.
What data does LibKey collect? Does the plugin track my activity/information?
What LibKey Does
LibKey Nomad requires the collection of anonymous data to provide you with the best linking to articles. Third Iron collects the following anonymous data about your use to report to the library:
- The institution you are affiliated with, to ensure the plugin provides proper links to full text scholarly content
- User interaction data, which is provided to the library to track usage of LibKey Nomad
- Technical data, to ensure Nomad works well across many different web browser versions and operating systems
LibKey Nomad is active only on specific domains, such as supported publisher pages or frequently visited research and scholarly sites like Wikipedia and PubMed. When active, LibKey Nomad looks for unique article identifiers to return linking information. LibKey is inactive on any other site.
What LibKey Doesn’t Do
- Require login or user accounts or ask users to provide personal information
- Cache user credentials for SSO, proxy, or other services. LibKey Nomad simply forwards links; any authentication and access to subscribed resources is managed by the organization.
- Interfere with the browser or other browser extensions.
Full details about the data collected by Third Iron and what the company does with with it are provided in the Third Iron Privacy Policy.