1. Help Your Library Be Omnipresent without Spending a Dime Nina McHale, Assistant Professor/Web Librarian University of Colorado Denver ∙ Auraria Library nina.mchale@ucdenver.edu Computers in Libraries 2009

3. Vendor-created widgets

4. iGoogle gadgets

5. Social networking sites for librariesAll of these nifty tools are OUR creations; can we share the love?

6. The Idea: Flickr Badge Creator

7. Steal this code! Please! Let’s “give it away, now” to our users to remix our source code for their own customized applications Where “stolen” code can be used: Course management systems (BlackBoard, eCollege) Personal web pages MySpace/Facebook pages iGoogle gadgets Any place people can cut and paste HTML

8. But Nina… “Our patrons aren’t web programmers. They won’t get how to do this.” It’s as easy as Ctrl + V “Isn’t this risky, putting our code out there for the masses to see?” Check with your IT folks, but this will likely be the same information that anyone can get from a web browser by viewing the source code “EVERYone will start using our stuff!” Authentication will stop anyone who’s not supposed to have access Ummm…so what? Isn’t that why it’s there?

9. Creating a “Steal This Code” Tool Decide what kind of widget code chunks you want to offer, for example: Catalog Databases (with federated search product) Combo catalog and databases (with federated search product) Web-based/IM chat Plan web page layout of widgets and code “generator” textarea (all on one page? Separate pages?) Provide an exact working example of the widget so that people know exactly what they’re getting Use the textarea HTML element with the JavaScript onfocus event to post your code chunks

10. Your Mileage May Vary… Products in use at Auraria Library: OPAC: Innovative Interfaces Millenium Federated search: Serials Solutions, 360 Search IM chat: Libraryh3lp + Pidgin Course management systems: eCollege .NExT Code examples in this presentation are specific to these products When in doubt, check with your web folksto get the correct HTML snippets for your resources View the source code of: http://library.auraria.edu/guides/general/searchboxes.html

11. The Magic of HTML Forms:Simple Catalog Search

12. The Magic of HTML Forms: Simple Catalog Search <form action="http://skyline.cudenver.edu/search~/" method="post"> Find a Book at the Auraria Library: <select name="searchtype2"> <option value="t">Title</option> <option value="a">Author</option> <option value="X">Keyword</option> <option value="d">Subject</option> </select> <input type="text" size="17" maxlength="75" name="searcharg2" /> <input type="hidden" name="SORT2" value="D" /> <input name="Submit" value="go" type="submit" /> </form>

13. Add the textarea and onfocus…(bold here for emphasis) <textarea name="skyline" cols="50" onfocus="select();"> <form action="http://skyline.cudenver.edu/search~/" method="post"> Find a Book at the Auraria Library: <select name="searchtype2"> <option value="t">Title</option> <option value="a">Author</option> <option value="X">Keyword</option> <option value="d">Subject</option> </select> <input type="text" size="17" maxlength="75" name="searcharg2" /> <input type="hidden" name="SORT2" value="D" /> <input name="Submit" value="go" type="submit" /> </form> </textarea>

14. The Magic of HTML Forms:Combined Catalog/Database Search

15. The Magic of HTML Forms:Combined Catalog/Database Search <form action="http://0-TB4CZ3EN3E.cs.serialssolutions.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/resultFrameset.jsp" name="searchForm" method="post" target="new"> <input value="TB4CZ3EN3E" name="SS_LibHash" type="hidden" /> <input value="default" name="catGroupList" type="hidden" /> <input name="searchBy" type="hidden" value="Category" /> <input value="title" name="field" type="hidden" /> <input type="hidden" name="dbID" value=”WEB" /> <!--Skyline Catalog--> <input type="hidden" name="dbID" value="EAP" /> <!--Academic Search Premier--> <input type="hidden" name="dbID" value="IAO" /> <!--Academic OneFile--> <input type="hidden" name="dbID" value="LXU" /> <!--LexisNexis Academic--> <div class="SSCentralSearchSearchTerm"> <span class="SSCentralSearchSearchCriteria">Search the Auraria Library for Books and Articles: <input class="SSCentralSearchSearchCriteria" maxlength="1000" size="25" name="term" type="text" value="" /> </span> <span class="SSCentralSearchSearchTermSubmit"> <input class="SSCentralSearchSearchTermSubmit" value="go" type="submit" /> </span> </div> </form>

16. Examples: Auraria Library “Steal This Code!” page University of Colorado Denver eCollege Early Literacy Instruction course page University of Minnesota Duluth “Widgets and Tools” page University of Minnesota Duluth, “Link Widget” page

17. Examples: Auraria Library

19. Example: University of Minnesota Duluth

21. Some Things to Consider Make sure to offer a means of receiving help with the widget code, such as an email link/form Place and link to the tool as appropriate Include it/link to it in high-traffic areas on your site Examples: How-to guides, audience portals, etc. Advertise the service Include in library newsletters, blogs, etc. Be prepared for success… If you are making code for a chat widget widely available within a campus course management system like BlackBoard, the staff who monitor chat queues should probably know about it…

22. Reasons to Give it Away, Now Platform-independent; users inject the code into their own online resources Low-tech, easy-to-create web page can provide a multitude of options to extend our reach beyond environments that we control Provides fun opportunities for outreach “Steal This Code!” debuted as part of a concurrent session at CUOnline Spring Symposium in May 2008

23. Links from this Presentation Flickr Badge Generator: http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne Auraria Library “Steal This Code!” Page http://library.auraria.edu/guides/general/searchboxes.html University of Minnesota Duluth “Widgets” Pages http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/widgets/ http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/widgets/dropdown/index.htm

24. Contact Information Nina McHale, Assistant Professor, Web Librarian nina.mchale@ucdenver.edu http://library.auraria.edu/~nmchale/