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.