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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

RSS feeds

There was some discussion about whether it would be possible to set up an RSS feed to the A-Z Template guide to keep track of any changes or additions that may require action for other guides. Unfortunately Springshare have confirmed that it is only possible to set up an RSS feed to a guide that has the status of Published, and we do not want to publish the A-Z Template because then it would appear in our LibGuides Home page. Until we come up with a better solution I will post messages to this blog about any major changes or additions to the template, and small updates will continue to appear in all your linked content boxes.

Computing guides

As agreed at the last LibGuides Committee meeting, I have created a new "How do I...?" for the Computing guides content box that is currently in the About the Library page because it takes up too much valuabe space.
I have not yet deleted the old Computing guides content box because many of you will have linked to it, so please delete that box in your guide and add the new page under your "How do I ...?" tab. I'll delete the old content box in 2 weeks.

Faculty blogs

Two updates:
1. The Template LibGuide name has been changed to A-Z Template so you don't have to scroll down so far to link your content boxes
2. I have added RSS feed content boxes for each of the faculty blogs on the Home page