Other institutions are also grappling what to call LibGuides and there are a couple of good user surveys available from a recent LibGuides discussion in the Springshare Lounge: What do you call them?
You can access the surveys at Reinventing Research Guides: LibGuides at Two Academic Libraries and Usability in the Library: LibGuides Reports
Extract from one of the reports: "It is clear that the most direct way to lead students to use a library subject or research guide is by having their instructor or GSI recommend it. When an instructor specifically recommends (or requires) the use of certain resources, students are sure to use them; this is most clearly demonstrated with course-specific guides. The more that faculty are aware of the existence of subject guides, and the opportunities for customization and integration with CTools, the better utilized they will be."
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Monday, 25 January 2010
Friday, 22 January 2010
Mouseovers
I have created some new instructions for adding mouseover text as a means of providing further information without cluttering up the page with text - see Mouseovers in the Authors guide.
Informaworld logo
I chased up Informaworld and they have given us permission to use their logo in our guides. It has been added to the A-Z Template so if you have recommended Informawolrd databases in your guides please add the logo now.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
More new widgets
I'm having fun with widgets today and have created another one for optional use in guides:
wordnik word of the day (large)
wordnik word of the day (small)
This comes from Ward's latest Top Choices:
Reference \ Humanities
Wordnik.
http://www.wordnik.com/
Wordnik is great fun. It combines the speed of the Web with the ease of print. Simply by clicking on links at the top of the screen, users may look up the definitions of any word, along with examples, pronunciations, etymologies, related items, and statistics. For instance, Wordnik estimates that someone is likely to use the word "ant" about twice a month (viewing the numerous flickr photos found under the main entry could lead to even more use). A bubble chart illustrates the word's use in the past two centuries. Additionally, this reviewer clocked the 90th look-up of "ant" on Wordnik. That's neat. But, like many Web sources, this site is only as good as its contributors. Fortunately, they are very good indeed. Anyone may log in and add words, sounds, pictures, tags, and synonyms; in the spirit of camaraderie, these contributions tend to be sound, valid, credible, and cool. What Wordnik will not do is provide help for misspellings like "commaderie." A useful addition would be one of the ubiquitous "do you mean" features for those who are challenged by multi-letter concoctions. Users can stay in touch with Wordnik through Twitter, a blog, FAQs, and "recently looked up," "random word," and "word of the day" features. Students stuck in a boring lecture could open another browser window and check out Wordnik. They may not be up-to-date for class, but they would have a lot of fun learning new words. Wordnik qualifies as marvelous, stupendous, and colossal. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general audience. -- K. Condic, Oakland University
wordnik word of the day (large)
wordnik word of the day (small)
This comes from Ward's latest Top Choices:
Reference \ Humanities
Wordnik.
http://www.wordnik.com/
Wordnik is great fun. It combines the speed of the Web with the ease of print. Simply by clicking on links at the top of the screen, users may look up the definitions of any word, along with examples, pronunciations, etymologies, related items, and statistics. For instance, Wordnik estimates that someone is likely to use the word "ant" about twice a month (viewing the numerous flickr photos found under the main entry could lead to even more use). A bubble chart illustrates the word's use in the past two centuries. Additionally, this reviewer clocked the 90th look-up of "ant" on Wordnik. That's neat. But, like many Web sources, this site is only as good as its contributors. Fortunately, they are very good indeed. Anyone may log in and add words, sounds, pictures, tags, and synonyms; in the spirit of camaraderie, these contributions tend to be sound, valid, credible, and cool. What Wordnik will not do is provide help for misspellings like "commaderie." A useful addition would be one of the ubiquitous "do you mean" features for those who are challenged by multi-letter concoctions. Users can stay in touch with Wordnik through Twitter, a blog, FAQs, and "recently looked up," "random word," and "word of the day" features. Students stuck in a boring lecture could open another browser window and check out Wordnik. They may not be up-to-date for class, but they would have a lot of fun learning new words. Wordnik qualifies as marvelous, stupendous, and colossal. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general audience. -- K. Condic, Oakland University
New widgets
There are 3 new widgets in the A-Z Template that you might like to add to your LibGuide:
LibGuide search box
Other guides box
This one contains links to subjects where we have published LibGuides available.
ProQuest search
There are 4 versions to choose from (large orange, large green, small orange, small green). You can edit the content box title in linked boxes to exclude the large/small/orange/green text. These search boxes are set up to search the business databases in ProQuest (there is a limit of 15 databases IDs that a search box can use)- if you want other ProQuest database search boxes set up please let me know and I'll create them for you. Of course Summon may make these individual databases widgets redundant, but if you particularly want students to search ProQuest they may be useful.
Try them out and add them where you think they might be useful.
LibGuide search box
Other guides box
This one contains links to subjects where we have published LibGuides available.
ProQuest search
There are 4 versions to choose from (large orange, large green, small orange, small green). You can edit the content box title in linked boxes to exclude the large/small/orange/green text. These search boxes are set up to search the business databases in ProQuest (there is a limit of 15 databases IDs that a search box can use)- if you want other ProQuest database search boxes set up please let me know and I'll create them for you. Of course Summon may make these individual databases widgets redundant, but if you particularly want students to search ProQuest they may be useful.
Try them out and add them where you think they might be useful.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
New guides published - Nursing & Physics
Congratulations to Stephen and Andrew for publishing 2 new guides - Nursing and Physics.
We now have 12 guides published and those people who have published already will be happy to confirm that the 2nd one is much faster than the 1st, and the 3rd is faster than the 2nd, and the 4th can almost be done with closed eyes :-)
We now have 12 guides published and those people who have published already will be happy to confirm that the 2nd one is much faster than the 1st, and the 3rd is faster than the 2nd, and the 4th can almost be done with closed eyes :-)
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
New content boxes - Book chapters
Bronwen (Forster) has kindly created some new content boxes for finding book chapters that I think are a great addition to the Books & readings tab- see Book chapters APA 5th and Book chapters Harvard.
Please review these boxes and post your feedback to this blog.
Please review these boxes and post your feedback to this blog.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
New feature: Book cover images
Just before Xmas Springshare did a deal with Syndetics to provide LibGuides subscribers with free access to book cover images.
When you add a Books from the Catalog content box you now get the option to add cover images from Amazon or Syndetics (click on the blue S).
Syndetics images are available in 3 different image sizes - 94px, 187px and 400px - so you have the option to use a larger image if you want to highlight a "Book of the week/month".
Unlike Amazon, Syndetics can use 13 digit ISBNs which is also great.
The beauty of the Syndetics images is that they use the URL that you have entered to take the user straight to our Tropicat entry if they click on the cover image.
The downside is that the quality of some of the small images in Syndetics is poor - I have raised this as an issue with Springshare and will let you know if they have a solution.
If you select an Amazon or a Syndetics image and it doesn't exist in their database you will get a blank space in your guide where the image would normally appear. If you have used Syndetics and the user clicks on that blank space they still go to the Tropicat entry. If you use Amazon they will be taken to the Amazon website.
When you add a Books from the Catalog content box you now get the option to add cover images from Amazon or Syndetics (click on the blue S).
Syndetics images are available in 3 different image sizes - 94px, 187px and 400px - so you have the option to use a larger image if you want to highlight a "Book of the week/month".
Unlike Amazon, Syndetics can use 13 digit ISBNs which is also great.
The beauty of the Syndetics images is that they use the URL that you have entered to take the user straight to our Tropicat entry if they click on the cover image.
The downside is that the quality of some of the small images in Syndetics is poor - I have raised this as an issue with Springshare and will let you know if they have a solution.
If you select an Amazon or a Syndetics image and it doesn't exist in their database you will get a blank space in your guide where the image would normally appear. If you have used Syndetics and the user clicks on that blank space they still go to the Tropicat entry. If you use Amazon they will be taken to the Amazon website.
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