1) If you’re trying to get a cover image into a “Books from the catalogue” box on LibGuides, but the book (or CD or DVD etc) doesn’t have a 10-digit ISBN then:

• find the item on Amazon;
• right-click on the cover image you want (Note: if it says ‘Click to look inside’ then the image can’t be used – I don’t know any alternative yet);
• in Firefox: select ‘Copy Image Location’;
• in IE: select ‘Properties’ then select and manually copy the url (make sure you get everything from http: to .jpg – some of it’s hidden at first but scrolls into view as you drag the cursor);
• back on LibGuides, paste this url into “Cover Art”;
• click on the square Amazon icon so the cover image displays;
• click ‘Add Book’ or ‘Save Changes’.

Not sure exactly how kosher this is but it seems to work.

2) If you’re wanting a library catalogue widget with drop-down options other than the default ones, let me know and I can modify one for you. See for example this DVD/video search box. I can easily make a similar one for CDs, journals, etc.

Deborah

LibGuides have found a way to get the images showing again but it does mean each page using them has to be fixed individually. So you’ve got three choices:

1) Copy the box again from this working page and then edit any subject specific links;

2) Edit the html yourself (click ‘read more’ for full instructions – it’s not many steps, as long as you’re not intimidated by html);

3) Ask Library IT to do it for you.

Deborah
Continue reading Fix for missing images on Assignment research page →

If you’re trying to create an RSS feed from a database, eg a table of contents alert, you’ll probably get an error saying “This feed cannot be displayed; please use the link below to open the feed in a new window.”

This is because most databases embed “.ezproxy.canterbury.ac.nz” in the RSS feed url, and the LibGuides software can’t authenticate through that. So:

• remove “.ezproxy.canterbury.ac.nz” from the RSS feed url before you paste it in to the LibGuides box; and
• tick the “Add proxy URL to the front of the links within this feed” box. (This adds the “.ezproxy.etc” back in so that off-campus users who click through to the full-text are able to be authenticated.)

Most of the time it’s best to leave the “Descriptions” as “In a popup”; if you don’t, note that any links within the description will *not* have the proxy URL added, so will break off-campus.

Deborah

If you’ve used the Assignment research page which has the blue images, you’ll notice that some of these are missing at the moment.

I think what’s happened is that SpringShare has changed their stylesheet so the coding I used to format the images left and right now displays them as invisible.

Library IT has reported the issue to SpringShare so hopefully they’ll be able to fix it. If not, I’ll reformat some other way. I’ll post a comment here when there’s some kind of outcome.

Deborah

Thank you to everyone attended the session today! It was great to have a chance to attend the conference and to be able to present what we got out of it to you all.

We referred to:

• Lawrence Lessig’s keynote in full AV glory at Q:\Deborah\Lessig-KeepingTheOutsideOut985.mov
• Dylan Horrocks (website)
• http://www.comicsreporter.com/ (website)
• legal comics downloads (website)
• Te Wero i te Ûpoko Tukutuku – The challenge of Mâori Subject Headings (paper)
• Mark McCrindle (website)
• Christchurch City Council Libraries 20025 Facilities Plan (PDF)
• Far from common – innovative approaches to designing information rich learning and research spaces (paper)
• Digital NZ (website)
• Stephen Abram’s talk to SLA (powerpoint slides)
• Collaborating to implement social software solutions for university libraries (paper)

And of course I should have referred to Online in Real-Time? by Catherine Jane and Dawn McMillan back in 2002. <shuffles shamefacedly, recovers with a winning smile> – but since then we’ve had six more years of experience that we could be sharing!

Deborah

A few people have asked me about how to add the MeeboMe widget to their LibGuide profile. If you want to do this I have instructions at Q:\Deborah\MeeboMe.doc.

This will be completely optional and it will be up to each librarian to be responsible for being available when the widget shows them online.

Deborah

You might have noticed the boxes on LibGuides have suddenly changed from rounded corners to square corners.

This is in response to a bug on Internet Explorer which threw up an error message when a box with rounded corners had a script in it (eg for our databases). This would be ugly/confusing for users. SpringShare is working on a more robust fix, but in the meantime we’ve changed our style.

It’s possible to override the setting for individual guides – but please don’t, because of this bug; or at least discuss it with Library IT first. (And if you come across any more bugs or error messages, please let Library IT know the details and circumstances: SpringShare is getting used to hearing from us on a regular basis so it’d be a shame to let them feel neglected. 🙂 )

Deborah

There’s an interesting article in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship on Making Research Guides More Useful and More Well Used with food for thought about designing and promoting subject guides.

In the references it links to a blog post by the user experience librarian at Georgia Tech, on Student Reviews of LibGuides & SubjectsPlus. A lot of the feedback there for LibGuides was negative but I think most of that is in the control of the librarian writing the guide, eg “too wordy”.

Deborah

There are two emergency exits in the Law Basement:

1) The exit beside the roller door is simplest (but has some pipes over it which might drop and block the exit).

2) On the other side of the lifts, go to the boiler room door, break the glass to the right of the door, take the key, go through the door, along the corridor, around the corner, up the stairs, and then try to figure out where to go next. (If you’re good at computer games you’ll be able to hold this cheat code in your head with no trouble. Alternatively you may wish to go back to the roller door and panic.)

Thanks to Angela Davies for getting this plan off FM and Anne Milligan for passing it on.

Deborah

Currently LibGuides only seems to allow one librarian in a subject guide’s profile box. (Perhaps allowing for more than one is a feature we could ask for?)

If you want to get around this for a subject which is managed by more than one librarian, you can delete the profile from each relevant page and add in a new box with eg a group photo and whatever contact details are relevant. You can then link to the box on other pages in your libguide.

For an example (though we haven’t got a group photo yet) log in to Admin -> Guide Index -> Engineering Intermediate and see the “Getting help” box on the top right.

Deborah