Using images in Embedded Video/Audio box

I used the Embedded Video/Audio box to create:

a list of keywords I saved to the public gallery in Wordle http://www.wordle.net/

a slideshow of images I uploaded to Photobucket http://photobucket.com/slideshows

Create an account with these websites and then once the presentation has been created just copy the HTML code provided and insert it into an Embedded Video/Audio box.

New Standards & Patents LibGuide

The new Standards & Patents LibGuide contains links to standards for different industries as well as access to Australian Standards online and IP Australia.

the latest updates from Springshare

Of particular interest are number 2 and 5. Number 3 enables us to easily identify different types of boxes applying a unique colour to each type.

1. Mobile interface for your guides! The system auto-detects mobile devices and serves the mobile version. It’s pretty cool, check it out. Also, we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon, but watch for a super-major announcement in a few weeks – a cool new tool which lets libraries easily build mobile websites. The process will be as easy and as fun as creating guides!
2. Including non-LibGuides guides in the LibGuides index. Now you can create “placeholder” guides in the system which can point to non-LibGuides pages, and display those pages alongside your LibGuides/CampusGuides content. Say you have a page which you want to make accessible/searchable from LibGuides. Now, you can place that page’s URL in your system, assign it all the standard LibGuides markup (title/description/tags/subject categories/etc.), and display it alongside your LibGuides/CampusGuides. This way your LibGuides/CampusGuides can aggregate *all* research and guide-related content at the library. The potential of this is far-reaching, to say the least!
3. Unique CSS class for each box type. Now you can customize the look and feel of individual box types to your heart’s content.
4. Updated Asset Management screen (now includes “Books from the Catalog”) and Guide Index screen (more/better filtering options for finding guides).
5. Custom Homepage Redirect – now you can assign a custom guide to act as your LibGuides/CampusGuides homepage (rather than the system default) by using the “Custom Homepage Redirect” option in your Customize Homepage screen.

Updated features and new code

From the Springshare support blog:

• Resource Icons – This new functionality integrates custom icons alongside your database/resource links (without having to hack your links with img tags). You can create a standard set of “meaningful” icons and easily deploy them across your resources. Create icons to represent trial databases, offsite/home-accessible resources, recommended resources, or any other info you want to convey to your users, and integrate them with your database links through a simple check-box! Example can be found here on the yet to be published politics guide. The creation of the feature is an administrator role. Possibly better suited for icons such as "new", or "map of Australia" to designate an Australian resource rather than the database icon in the example. Icons will display 16px x 16px only.
• Librarian Profiles have seen a number of upgrades, including an improved layout to the profile page, a new “LinkedIn” field, and better CSS customization options
• The API now offers more layout control on subject links, and options to return guides sorted by popularity or publication date
• We’ve updated the Rich Text Editor to a more recent version of TinyMCE, which should fix the issue of stripped FORM tags when using IE

Libguide home page subject list

After discussions with Bronwyn, I have added a subject heading, Business to the Browse by subject box on the home page and linked all the business related subjects guides to this heading. It works for this cluster of subjects and it means the list can be shorter. How do you think it will work for other subject clusters?

You quote it, you note it.

This is an interesting example on why we should reference found by Katrina. Click on the graphic box to see the full programme. What do you think?

Excellent guide example

This is a great guide for displaying how to borrow, renew, and request inter library loans.

Working with Keywords

If you haven't seen this page yet have a look and thanks to Kylie Pay for doing most of the work. I have added it to the A-Z template under How do I... . It uses great ice-cream examples for illustrating Boolean logic to the uninitiated.

http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/aecontent.php?pid=54869&sid=1181785

EndNote and EndNote Web guides

The EndNote and EndNote Web guides are now published as Libguides. Please pass any comments to Kathy.

Links on the A-Z template have been made. If you have not linked to the box, please make your changes so your links point directly at these libguies. Redirects have been placed on the appropriate pages on the CMS.

One Search RSS feeds

If you haven't tried it yet go to One search and once you have a search strategy you like click on the RSS feed button. You can then use this feed url for a customised rss feed box in libguides for all sorts of things. I have used it recently for books on specific topics like education, journalism, poscolonial narratives etc. It is not as pretty as having a featured book with a nice book cover but if you sort it by latest then it will show new additions from the catalogue with little effort on your part.

Here are some examples:

• http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=96188&sid=720118#2654773
• http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=81862&sid=685829#2656320
• http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=81862&sid=607596#2654832
  

Referencing libguide now published

Hi all, the referencing libguide is now available. Please have a look and pass on any feedback to myself, Sharon or Mark. It is still a work in progress but we feel that most of the relevant information is now covered. You might want to link to the relevant boxes/tabs in the libguide to informtion on your referencing tab for your subject libguides.

A redirection has been placed on the relevant CMS pages to link back to the new guide which is also linked on the libguides homepage.

Accounting and Finance

The Accounting and finance Libguide has now been published. A redirect has been activated from the Library resources page and it is now linked to the list on the Libguides home page.

Creating an annotated bibliography

Creating an annotated bibliography has been published and a link has been added to Other Guides on the LibGuides Home page. It's a great resource if you have any students struggling with an annotated bibliography at the InfoHelp desk.

Embedding research skills

I think you are all aware that there is a LibGuide called Embedding Research Skills where I have outlined why IL should be embedded into courses and how the Library can help achieve this goal.

This guide also includes many examples from different disciplines and I think this is really important because every discipline requires students to learn different sets of skills. I have given all librarians editing access to this guide so please add new examples as you come across them. It would be even better if you could add examples from our own institution.

The guide is directed primarily at academics, but the discipline-specific examples will also give you ideas for new ways of getting the skills embedded into the JCU subjects.

Creating a photo collage

Instructions for creating a photo collage using Adobe Fireworks CS4 have added to the Managing your images page of the LibGuides for Authors research guide - see Creating a collage.

Adobe Fireworks CS4 is part of the Adobe Design Premium Creative Suite (get the whole suite, not just Fireworks) – see Adobe Site License Agreement for details about the JCU licence for this product. If you don’t already have it you should submit a request via the IT Helpdesk

Springshare code updates

Springshare have just announced a number of code updates that some of you may have noticed already. Here is the list as reported in the Springshare blog. If you have questions about any of them please discuss via this blog.

"These updates represent several months of work from our talented tech team, along with dozens of suggestions from our LG / LA / CG user communities! As you will see, there is a lot to review, so lets get started!

LibGuides

* The LibGuides text editor now allows you to toggle between rich and plain text modes without first needing to save you work. We also added a “Save Changes” button so you can save your text without closing the editor, as well as a status area that lets you know when you have pending changes that need to be saved.
* You can now change the order of sub-pages manually, so there is no longer a need to add numeric prefixes to the sub-page names in order to control the page order. When reusing a page, you can also choose to make it a top-level page or a sub-page right from the Reuse Page screen.
* When creating a new link, book, or event you can now decide if that item will open in a new window or the same window on an item-by-item basis. Any item that does not have its own custom “target” will use the default specified on the System Settings page.
* We have added a new “User Profile” content box type that will allow you to embed a LibGuides user profile box in any column, at any position, within your guide.
* Enhanced User Profile pages give you the ability to add your office hours, as well as additional custom content by creating one rich text box and one links box. You may also disable your LibGuides profile page if you would prefer to not have it be visible to the public.
* We have also added a dedicated Facebook URL field to the profiles, so that you can easily link to your Facebook profile or library’s page within your profile.
* The new Collaborator feature allows you to co-create a guide with a person who does not have their own LibGuides account. A guide Collaborator has rights to create and edit content on just a single guide in the system, allowing them to assist you with the content creation without having access to other guides or the admin areas of the system.
* When reusing links, you are now able to customize the “description” and “more information” fields, so you can tailor the link information to each specific guide.
* With the new “Links to Guides” content box type you can create a box that allows you to browse by subject/librarian, view all published guides in the system, browse by most popular guides, most recent guides, etc.
* LibGuides pages now have a visibility setting, allowing you to remove entire pages from the public view with a single click.
* All cover art from Syndetics is now retrieved at the highest possible resolution, and scaled down accordingly, to ensure the highest quality for all cover art images.
* We updated our code so that Google Analytics will pick up link hits in Links & Lists and Simple Web Links boxes! All you need to do is add the Google Analytics tracking code in the Custom < HEAD > Code box on the System-wide Settings page. Your link hits will then show up in the “Content” report in the GA console.
* You can now search for content within a Private Guide, assuming you are already on that guide and use the “This Guide” option in the search drop-down menu. We also added a “view homepage” link to each of the results on the search results screen, so you can easily jump to any guide homepage right from the search results."

Translate this page

I have added a new content box to the Template to Translate this page - you can add it wherever you think it might be useful in your guides. Another wonderful Google service!

The notes from yesterday's LibGuides Committee meeting are now on JustUs
Please check the new/updated content boxes (under #3 in the notes) to see if they should be added to your guides. I will be adding them all to the A-Z Template today if they aren't already there.

LibGuides training ppt

I have embedded the LibGuides training ppt into the LibGuides for Authors guide - see LibGuides training.
This was done using Slideshare which is a very easy to use free program (you need to register) for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs. Those of you who are training students may like to try this so that your LibGuide becomes the platform/launchpad for your whole training session and students can easily go back to the LibGuide and the presentation in one place after your class.

Subscribing to the LibGuides blog

I have added a new content box about subscribing to this blog in the LibGuides for Authors guide. It would be great if you could all subscribe to the blog through a news reader so you don’t miss any updates that you need to know about.
Please remember that I use the blog to post ALL messages about LibGuides so that:
* your email is not cluttered up with messages from me
* you can go back and view content any time you want
* we can discuss issues online and everyone can contribute to the discussions

See JCU LibGuides blog

LibGuides usage statistics

I have added an extra tab to the A-Z Template so you have easy access to the LibGuides usage statistics for published guides. It's just an overview of hits to each guide by month.
If you want to view detailed statistics for your own guides to see exactly which links are being used:
* Go to My Admin
* Select the Usage Statistics tab
* Click on Select Your Report then under Usage Reports for Guides I Created select the guide you want view

Statistics guide

The Statistics guide has now been published so you may want to change some of your links to point to the new guide. The most obvious places are:

How do I find statistics?
Research > Working with statistics

Some guides have very specific statistics information, e.g., all the health guides have great lists of statistics books for the discipline, and Medicine has a separate page for "Epidemiology & statistics" so it won't be possible to simply direct users to the new guide in these instances.

LibGuides search ranking

I thought some of you might be interested to know a little more about how LibGuides search ranking works so here's en extract from the Springshare Lounge:

"...search ranking. Our search looks first in the guide title, then the guide description, then the page titles, then page content. So basically, if it finds the word(s) you searched on in the guide title, that gets ranked higher than if it's just on the page. And if it finds the word(s) in the guide title as well as on one of the page titles, that page gets ranked higher than the others. It is more complex than that, but that's basically how it works. (The search engine applies statistical weighting factors based on a BM25 [best match] algorithm.)"

Cognitive capacity for learning article

Here is an interesting article about cognitive capacity for learning:

Little, J. J. (2010). Cognitive load theory and library research guides [Electronic Version]. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 15, 53-63. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10875300903530199

Abstract
Online library research guides are instructional tools that most libraries provide for their patrons. With greater flexibility in Web programming and new products like Springshare’s Libguides, librarians have multiple venues for guide creation. This paper seeks to assist research guide editors in assessing their guides based on cognitive load theory. This theory is based on the idea that cognitive capacity for learning is limited and that techniques can be developed to help learners avoid cognitive overload. Addressing the three main sources of cognitive load gives librarians a framework in which to create meaningful and useful research guides.

Statistics LibGuide

There is a new Statistics LibGuide ready for review by anyone who volunteers - see Statistics

Please send your feedback to me.

Generic skills guides on LibGuides Home page

I have created an additional content box on our LibGuides Home Page for guides that do not fit into the subject categories. At the moment it contains links to Evaluating Sources, Writing Guide, BA1001, Embedding Research Skills, EV2360. The box is called Other Guides and if anyone has ideas about something more imaginative than that name I'd be pleased to hear it.

Best of LibGuides

Springshare now has a "Best of LibGuides" section. The idea is to promote the best examples of LibGuides and the added bonus is that all the featured content is available for use by anyone else. You can nominate your own or someone else's guide. The Springshare people think we are producing some pretty cool guides so why not share them with the international LibGuides community?

LibGuides & Information Literacy

There's an interesting story about using LibGuides for IL by Karen Neven at the Dalhousie Medical School: Using LibGuides for Information Literacy in Medicine. Here are some extracts:

"Like any library at a university, we’re always looking for ways to promote the library and our support of curricula across the academic community, bringing the library top of mind for our users. I’ve found LibGuides to be a particularly effective tool to accomplish this.

... LibGuide designed based on the architecture of COPS would be effective. It succeeded beyond my wildest imagination.

The guide is laid out in tabbed format, then Years 1 & 2 contain sub-tabs with links to library resources supporting each individual unit in those years. Years 3 & 4 are the clerkship years, with no individual units, so general practice resources are provided under a single tab. Graduate medical students are supported with a tab called “Resources by Specialty” where links are provided by medical specialty.

... for some pages, with very little promotion outside of word of mouth, use increased more than 600% from the first year the guide went live to the second year."

LearnJCU links to LibGuides

I have updated the instructions for creating links from within LearnJCU Subject sites to LibGuides widgets and content boxes - see LearnJCU

If the lecturer gives you editing access to the LearnJCU site (best option if you can manage it) you can add the links yourself. If you don't have access, the lecturer will need to create the links but you will still need to supply the javascript code from LibGuides.

Links from within the LearnJCU subject sites are the best way possible to ensure students find and use your LibGuides so please encourage your lecturers to do this. You can view some examples in the following LearnJCU subjects:
EV2360 (under Library Help)
BA1001 (under Library/Learning Advisor Help)
ED1401 (under Hello Helen!)

If anyone has any other examples please share them so we can all get ideas about what can be done.

One Search (Summon)

Alan has created a One Search (Summon) search box that is now available in the A-Z Template under Journal Articles and Books & Readings tabs.

The wording "Find articles, books, cds, dvds and more..." was discussed and agreed on at the last LibGuides Committee meeting. If you have feedback please discuss it via this blog.

Copyright and Flickr images

Please note that photos that you find in Flickr and possibly other "free" image sources are not necessarily available for you to add to your LibGuides without direct permission from the copyright owner.

In Flickr, images uploaded by authors/photographers default to "All Rights Reserved" unless the author changes that to one of the Creative Commons licences. This means that you do need to ask permission before using the images. Many of the Flickr photos have "Some rights reserved" and if you follow that link it tells you that you must acknowledge the photo.

If you have used Flickr photos please go back and check that you are using the image legally.

Breaking long tab headings or content box names

If you want to force a line break in a tab or content box heading so that it goes over two lines instead of one long line you can do this by inserting a break:
For tab headings all you need to do is:
* Go to Add/Edit Pages > Change Page Info
* Choose the page you want to edit
* In the New Name field, add <br> between the words where you want the line break
* Click Save Changes

Similarly for content box headings:
* Go to the content box
* Click on Edit > Change box title/type
* Add <br> between the words where you want the break to appear
* Click Save Changes

Book cover images

By now I hope that you are all using Syndetics book cover images when you add Books from the Catalog content boxes because this takes students direct to the Tropicat record for the title.

If you find that Syndetics don't have a cover image for your book, and an Amazon image is not available or you don't want to use it, you can add a "placeholder" so that the space that would be taken by a cover is taken by either a "Cover image unavailable" message or a blue rectangle the same size as a cover image.

For the "Cover image unavailable" copy and paste this URL into the Cover Art field:
http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/nc-sm.gif

For the blue rectangle use this URL
http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/gc-sm.gif

Both of these URLs are for small images, but if you want medium or large images let me know and I'll provide different image URLs.

Learning Advisors

If any of you are collaborating with the Learning Advisors on guides you might be interested in adding profile boxes for them. I have created one for the Townsville Advisors and one for the Cairns Advisors in the A-Z Template.

I have also created a single box with all 6 Learning Advisors.

New content boxes

The notes from the last LibGuides Committee meeting are now on JustUs for your information and/or action.

Many new content boxes were discussed and most have been given the OK for adding to your guides now or in the future. Some need further development when we have time, but feel free to use them now. Here's a summary of new content that you might like to add to your existing or guides under-development. If you're going to use any of it please link to it in the A-Z Template so that you can take advantage of any updates in future.

JCU images
Find maps
Find conference proceedings
Find government information
Find newspaper articles
Use reference materials
Search all JCU LibGuides [widget that searches full text]
Book chapters APA 5th
Book chapters Harvard
About taking notes
About reading
Tropicat subject search [This one needs editing for your discipline]
Getting started – Journal articles [This one needs editing for your discipline]
Quick eReference
Search Tropicat
JCU Bookshop
Working with Excel
APA style blog

Thanks to all the creative souls who have developed this new content or who have spotted it on someone else's guide and reproduced it (with permission I'm sure) for JCU students. If anyone else has new content they'd like to share please do it via this blog or tell me so I can add it to the LibGuides meeting agenda for the next meeting.

If anyone has comments or questions about any of this new content please discuss it via this blog.

Books & Readings: Search Tropicat

The Search Tropicat content box in the A-Z Template has been revised so that it:
- includes a search box
- includes help if needed
- includes info for off-campus users

This means that we no longer need the "How to use the Library catalogue" box because it's content has all been moved to the "Search Tropicat" box.

I've checked everyone's guides and your "Search Tropicat" boxes are all linked to the A-Z Template. This means I can delete the "How to use the Library catalogue" box from the A-Z Template and although you lose one box, you don't lose any information.

If anyone has any objections to this or has ideas about improving the "Search Tropicat" box please post it to this blog for discussion.

Link to whole page

Over time we have generated a lot of generic content so it may be sensible in some instances to link to a whole page in the A-Z Template, rather than linking to individual content boxes. The following pages are probably suitable for this:
About the Library
How do I find computing guides
How do I find lecture notes and readings
How do I find special collections
How do I start my assignment
All Subject Guides
+ a few other How do I...? pages when they are further developed.

Please don't do this if you feel you can add discipline-specific value with your own content boxes or by tweaking a generic content box.

Here's how do do it:
1. Add/Edit Pages
2. Copy Existing Page
3. Create a linked page that always shows the same content as the original page
4. Select the guides that contains the page that you wish to reuse ... (usually A-Z Template)
5. Select the page you want to reuse ... (e.g., About the Library)
6. Copy page

If you link to a whole page you will not be able to add extra content boxes, but any changes in the generic content boxes will be automatically updated in your guide.