a)
Megan told me to add the Directory of Open Access Journals and Project Gutenberg to the site (and that the latter might get indexed in the catalog too). Just because something doesn't cost anything doesn't mean that it's any less useful or trusted, so I've placed them alongside everything else.
I put Project Gutenberg on the Home pages next to NetLibrary, so that they are equal (and because it fits).
And I put both on the DB list page, with symbols to indicate that they are free:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/dbname.html
I also moved the short list of "database tools" to a little box near the top, because I don't think anyone ever scrolls to the bottom to see it. Some of the links in that list were in the repeated Quick List too, so now I keep them in "tools" only, as both lists are now visible.
These have also been added to the subject guides; the DOAJ is on all of them, and Project Gutenberg is on most of them.
http://www.ulm.edu/library/subject/index.html
b)
Barbara is no longer on the staff list:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/staffdept.html
Friday, July 16, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
July 4th hours + video development
a)
I've put the July 4th weekend hours on the home page, so people don't think we're open.
b)
I don't mean to blow my own horn, but some of you may have seen my pro-LOUIS video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOjP3lMhCJ8
I made this in a short amount of time at the library and at home (but it's not in color, and is only a min. and a half long, after all). The most tedious (tedious, tedious) part of working with flash is making the subtitles. But YouTube automates that process. I was shocked at how easy and fast it was. So it would not be unreasonable to do something like it with pictures or video to replace the now-outdated library tour.
As LJ suggested, we could also make a video commercial at the same time.
I've put the July 4th weekend hours on the home page, so people don't think we're open.
b)
I don't mean to blow my own horn, but some of you may have seen my pro-LOUIS video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOjP3lMhCJ8
I made this in a short amount of time at the library and at home (but it's not in color, and is only a min. and a half long, after all). The most tedious (tedious, tedious) part of working with flash is making the subtitles. But YouTube automates that process. I was shocked at how easy and fast it was. So it would not be unreasonable to do something like it with pictures or video to replace the now-outdated library tour.
As LJ suggested, we could also make a video commercial at the same time.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Farewell to Delta...
I posted about Delta's departure to the reference blog, and I also know I need to update the site. This time, I'm going to search all the site files I have for the word "delta" to make sure I get all mentions of it.
I may re-do the library tour in order to get it up to date.
I may re-do the library tour in order to get it up to date.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Karen C. isn't around here
ML found Karen C.'s name and contact information on the instruction and tours page. I've updated that, and I did a search of all the pages, and it seems that it was the last one.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
"Plain English Project"
Well, Google/Blogger has updated its available designs, so I changed the look for no reason. This isn't a critical blog meant for public use.
A while ago I was talking about the idea of streamlining the langugage of the library web pages. I suppose it's about time I got on with that. To reiterate, the idea is to, basically, make papes easier to read by making them less wordy and more clear. How do you know something is too wordy and unclear? How do you fix it? Lynell S. Buckley's (a librarian at Tech) LLA 2010 presentation slides provide an excellent explanation, if you've never seen it:
http://www.latech.edu/library/tutorials/others/dejavu.pdf
I don't think this warrants a meeting, but we do need to decide who's willing to do which pages. Here is the old list of who was assigned what page (yes, the blog looks different now): http://ulmlwpc.blogspot.com/2008/10/informal-status-report.html These need to be re-assigned too, of course. If you don't want to do a page, perhaps someone else will. I will take some of Karen C.'s, and since I have access to the FTP for the Gov Docs domain, ulm.edu/govdocs/, I will work on all of that.
As an example, I have already done the "for students" page (there were some things I needed to update).
New: http://www.ulm.edu/library/forstudents.html
Old: http://www.ulm.edu/library/forstudents-OLDVERSION.html
Here is a visual comparison:
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/students.PNG
The difference isn't huge because I wrote it with students in mind to start with, but there is a difference. Small changes such as this one add up:
Before: "Speaking of that... we at the Library have produced a number of
presentations for classes and the web that explain not only the library
but particular subjects."
After: "The Library has a number of presentations for classes and the web."
Why: Redundant. We would've have bothered to make these if they didn't explain anything useful, so I don't need to say that again. "Produced"? Gosh.
There is no rubric for this. Just make the pages smaller. You can submit to the blog like before, or email a file to me. Don't worry too much about HTML and things like that; Since most of the program you-all use will affect the HTML markup, I will need to re-do the markup on all of them regardless. If you know how to edit HTML with a text editor, you can use that but don't use one that permanently wraps the text just because it wants to (SeaMonkey does).
If you add a new link to the page that isn't already on the page, please tell me specifically, because I'm probably going to convert everything to plain text before I put it back and use the previous text to put the URLs back. If you had a new URL in a hyperlink, I might not notice it.
Is July 30th a reasonable due date for the new copies?
A while ago I was talking about the idea of streamlining the langugage of the library web pages. I suppose it's about time I got on with that. To reiterate, the idea is to, basically, make papes easier to read by making them less wordy and more clear. How do you know something is too wordy and unclear? How do you fix it? Lynell S. Buckley's (a librarian at Tech) LLA 2010 presentation slides provide an excellent explanation, if you've never seen it:
http://www.latech.edu/library/tutorials/others/dejavu.pdf
I don't think this warrants a meeting, but we do need to decide who's willing to do which pages. Here is the old list of who was assigned what page (yes, the blog looks different now): http://ulmlwpc.blogspot.com/2008/10/informal-status-report.html These need to be re-assigned too, of course. If you don't want to do a page, perhaps someone else will. I will take some of Karen C.'s, and since I have access to the FTP for the Gov Docs domain, ulm.edu/govdocs/, I will work on all of that.
As an example, I have already done the "for students" page (there were some things I needed to update).
New: http://www.ulm.edu/library/forstudents.html
Old: http://www.ulm.edu/library/forstudents-OLDVERSION.html
Here is a visual comparison:
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/students.PNG
The difference isn't huge because I wrote it with students in mind to start with, but there is a difference. Small changes such as this one add up:
Before: "Speaking of that... we at the Library have produced a number of
presentations for classes and the web that explain not only the library
but particular subjects."
After: "The Library has a number of presentations for classes and the web."
Why: Redundant. We would've have bothered to make these if they didn't explain anything useful, so I don't need to say that again. "Produced"? Gosh.
There is no rubric for this. Just make the pages smaller. You can submit to the blog like before, or email a file to me. Don't worry too much about HTML and things like that; Since most of the program you-all use will affect the HTML markup, I will need to re-do the markup on all of them regardless. If you know how to edit HTML with a text editor, you can use that but don't use one that permanently wraps the text just because it wants to (SeaMonkey does).
If you add a new link to the page that isn't already on the page, please tell me specifically, because I'm probably going to convert everything to plain text before I put it back and use the previous text to put the URLs back. If you had a new URL in a hyperlink, I might not notice it.
Is July 30th a reasonable due date for the new copies?
Monday, June 7, 2010
databases working now...
Since friday, the databases that weren't working are OK now, so I've removed the emergency links.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Various things that happened this week...
1) EZProxy not working
It appears that EZProxy is down. I've placed some links that work on-campus but not off-campus on the DB page, and I've put something about it in the news box so that people are aware of this problem.
2) Hours
The summer hours sheet is complete.
3) Viruses
Well, I got a virus. My first virus in about 6 years. Apparently, you don't have to install junk or go to bad sites to get them anymore. They can be hidden in ads on otherwise completely legit sites. Trend Micro OfficeScan didn't find this, either.
I worked for hours trying to get rid of this, and in the end, I put everything right by restoring an image of the hard drive as it had been at a better time. I didn't lose anything. I used a program called DriveImage XML to do this, and it's free. If you'd like to know how to use this program, let me know and I'll show it to you.
4) WilsonWeb
A new database was added this week... http://ulmlibraryreference.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-database-hw-wilson.html
It appears that EZProxy is down. I've placed some links that work on-campus but not off-campus on the DB page, and I've put something about it in the news box so that people are aware of this problem.
2) Hours
The summer hours sheet is complete.
3) Viruses
Well, I got a virus. My first virus in about 6 years. Apparently, you don't have to install junk or go to bad sites to get them anymore. They can be hidden in ads on otherwise completely legit sites. Trend Micro OfficeScan didn't find this, either.
I worked for hours trying to get rid of this, and in the end, I put everything right by restoring an image of the hard drive as it had been at a better time. I didn't lose anything. I used a program called DriveImage XML to do this, and it's free. If you'd like to know how to use this program, let me know and I'll show it to you.
4) WilsonWeb
A new database was added this week... http://ulmlibraryreference.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-database-hw-wilson.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)