By the end of December, WSU students will have a simpler way to search through the millions of digital files and books through the library.

Search It, a new search program, will feature one main search box allowing students to find library materials faster and easier, said Alex Merrill, interim assistant dean for Library Operations.

He said the new program will improve upon the system students currently use.

“This is definitely a better way to show the resources we already have,” Merrill said.

Search It will take effect following finals in December, he said. This will allow time for any glitches to be figured out while the majority of WSU students are not relying on the system during break and also will allow time for students to acclimate.

Six universities including Western Washington University and Linfield College have already switched to the new program. This will unite resources between institutions and universities across the Northwest, Merrill said.

By the end of next year, 36 other institutions will also connect to Search It, allowing for a greater amount of resources for students to use. This includes more than 26 million more digital files and books for use by those at WSU.

“Moving to a shared system will allow us to do new and interesting things,” he said. ”It will open up new avenues to how we can get information out and allow for deep collaboration.”

Ray Henry, web services librarian, said integrating many of the services the WSU Libraries offer into a single place creates a more user-friendly webpage.

“Libraries in general are trying to get more “Google-ish,”’ Henry said. “People expect to enter a word into a box and receive good information back. This is what we’re aiming for.”

Beth Blakesley, associate dean of Libraries at WSU, explained the program will give students more information with fewer clicks and pop-up menus.

“Search It will further streamline the search and access processes,” she said. “We may never have one single tool to provide access to absolutely everything, but Search It will be another step in that direction.”

Other aspects of Search It include a cloud-based system, allowing the program to be managed easier, as well as increased ability to update.

Whereas the current search program Griffin is fairly static, Merrill said Search It will change more often with improvements.

“This means that the development cycle on the product is much shorter,” Merrill said. “You will see new features faster.”

He said students should not expect any difficulty using the new program. While there will be tutorials available, Merrill said for most people they are not needed.

“It’s a very straight forward system,” he said.