I've basically "hacked" the language files for the membership module to make it an employee search directory for my company's intranet and its setup so that our employees can search it to get someone's phone extension.

While this all works fine and dandy from within the membership module I'd like to be able to either have the system search box also search the membership database, or, if thats not possible, at least create a block with a simple search form in it that will work from all pages within our site.

It seems like it should be possible, but I really know very little PHP so I don't know how to do it.

Can anyone instruct me on how to do it or if its even possible?

Much thanks!

couple of ways to do it....
Since you already have the members search page 'hacked' to do what you want, you can create a new block that displays on all pages and paste the form elements and options into it...making a 'mini search' block....which also allows you to pre-define search parameters, so it can be a 'Members Phone' search or whatever without any input from the user other than the user name or partial number.

Another way is to use one of the custom form modules and create entirely new forms that will call the smarty functions used in the members search page. (same thing as above, but may fix any errors that occur when trying to do it within a block, which has some restraints on what can be executed/called.)

Good luck!