The Power of LibGuides: Using the Interface and Creating Content
1. The Power of LibGuides: Using the
Interface and Creating Content
Michael Johnson, MLS
Circulation Librarian, Shawnee State University
April, 23rd 2012
2. What we will cover in the
next hour
Quick review of the last class
The main page options
Creating a new research guide
Creating pages and ordering them
Creating content boxes and content
The limitations of a WYSIWYG
Gathering statistics from libguides
3. Review
LibGuides is a content management system
Easy to share or aggregate information
Can set up permissions
Choices to made before you start
Color, language, formatting etc…
Best practices aka Think of the User
Use the system to save time
Users want less not more
Run a user analysis
5. Creating a new research
guide: Before Clicking
Start on paper
Pencil and paper are easy to erase and move
around
This saves time
Making a blueprint
Not for every bit of content
Big parts
How many tabs
Major boxes
Like a blue print this will change
8. Creating a new research
guide: Lets take a tour
Add a page
Adding a tap
Reorder/move pages
Reorder boxes
Resize columns
Delete a page
This can’t be undone
9. Creating a new research
guide: WARNING
Don’t create subpages under the tabs
Hard to use on Mobile
The drop down menus that appear under the tabs
are confusing
Users don’t like them
Instead create a new guide with the headers
being the drop down menu
Link back with a related guides box at the bottom
10. Creating a new site: Lets
move some stuff around
Lets take a look at the practice cyber bulling
guide I made:
http://sandbox.campusguides.com/cyber-
bullying
We will go over content types in a bit
11. What’s in a box: Types of
content
Rich Text/Dynamic Content/Scripts
This is the most versatile box
Allows for HTML and embedding
Link Boxes
This is you want to make a list of links
I like Links & Lists
Multimedia Boxes
Use it only for RSS Feeds and Books from Catalog
Everything else can be done in Rich Text better
12. What’s in a box: Types of
content pt. 2
User Input Boxes
Don’t use them
Miscellaneous Boxes
Dates and events is useful
Google Boxes
Aren’t we trying to show other sources then Google?
Play Around
Explore and learn the options
13. The power of lists
Lists are very useful
Databases
Similar resources
Providing out going links
Descriptive Text
At the top there is room to write
Users like lists
Short and related material
Non-Link list
Use Rich Text
15. Rich text box: WYSIWYG
Stands for “What you see is what you get”
Allows for a graphical system to interact with
XHTML and CSS
Like Microsoft word for a website
Pros
Interacting in a way that your used to
Short learning time, almost “natural”
Cons
Not versatile
Can fight you
17. Getting statistics
We live in a quantitative world
LibGuide Statistics can be another statistic that
can show library usage
First are statistics for all the guides
Then statistics for an individual page