Resources for MDC LibGuide Authors: LibGuide Tips

Just like any library collection, our LibGuide system needs a little weeding now and then. This video explains the truth and consequences of deleting LibGuides.

View the Chat Transcript

A new item has been added to our MDC LibGuide Guidelines under LibGuide Administration: Accounts (page 4):

• The following procedure will be followed when a candidate for employment is asked to develop a LibGuide as part of the search and screen process.
  • A current LibGuide owner will create a LibGuide and will designate the candidate as an editor of the guide.
  • If the candidate is not currently employed in Learning Resources and does not have a LibGuide account, the LibGuide owner will create an editor account for the candidate.
  • Guide status will be set to private.
  • When the search and screen process is completed, the LibGuide owner will promptly delete the guides developed by the unsuccessful candidates and will notify a LibGuide administrator to request deletion of editor accounts.

The MDC LibGuide Guidelines are maintained by the LibGuide Work Group. Revisions are implemented upon approval from the Collegewide Director of Learning Resources.

Two new items have been added to our MDC LibGuide Guidelines:

1. Under General Guidelines: Requirements (page 2)
   Course guides created in collaboration with a professor will include the professor’s name in the title of the guide (unless the guide involves multiple professors). Including the course number in the title is optional, but recommended if the guide pertains to a single course.
    
2. Under Best Practices: Look and Feel (page 2)
   Choose images that reflect the diversity of our community. For helpful information, see the University & College Designers Association’s Best Practices for Inclusive and Diverse Photography in Higher Education.

The MDC LibGuide Guidelines are maintained by the LibGuide Work Group. Revisions are implemented upon approval from the Collegewide Director of Learning Resources.

Did you know that PowerPoint can automatically convert your speech into captions while you're presenting a slideshow? Okay, so this isn't about LibGuides, but it is about accessibility, and it's too good not to share.

The LibGuide Work Group has selected a new banner, designed by LR's own Caitlin Richardson.

You may also have noticed that our default colors for LibGuide tabs and boxes have been adjusted to coordinate with the new banner. No worries, though! If you've changed the tab and/or box colors in any of your guides, your customizations have remained in place.

If you loved the old default colors and absolutely must have them back, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Go into edit mode for the guide you want to change.
2. Select Tab & Box Options from the drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the edit screen.
   
   
    

3. Plug in the color codes listed below.

   Tab Color Codes

   • Active background (light blue): #c1d7f7
   • Active font (black): #000000
   • Inactive background (navy blue): #003366

   Box Color Codes

   • Box header background (navy blue): #003366

In case you missed Springshare's most recent webinar on building a virtual escape room, here is the recording: https://tinyurl.com/yevxrvud. Even if escape rooms aren't your thing, the webinar provides a good introduction to creating LibWizard tutorials.

Here's the recording of a recent TBLC webinar.

If you're working on a LibGuide with a faculty member and feel a more formalized agreement would be helpful, you can now take advantage of the Best Practices for LibGuide Collaboration with Faculty document [PDF], which includes an agreement form you can use as-is, or modify to meet your needs. The form is optional, but may help to clarify the nature of the collaboration for all involved.

Many thanks to Marta Frydman for developing this document for the LibGuide Work Group.

UPDATE: This video is now part of a series of short video tutorials on how to address common WAVE accessibility issues.
 

This 9-minute video shows you how to use the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool to test your LibGuides for color contrast issues - a surprisingly common problem in many of our guides. You'll also learn how easy it is to revert your LibGuide's color scheme back to the accessible default.

What do you do if you accidentally delete a LibGuide, or if someone suddenly needs a LibGuide you deleted ages ago? Keep calm, and watch this 4-minute video that shows you how to retrieve an HTML backup. You'll also learn how to back up your existing guides in case of a zombie apocalypse or other unforeseen disaster. You can't be too careful these days!

"Font Awesome" is a free collection of icons that you can easily add to your LibGuides. This 8-minute video shows you how to insert an icon and then adjust its size and color.

If you're trying to add a book from the catalog and are having difficulty importing the cover art, this 2-minute video might have the answer.

Thanks to those of you who joined me this week for the virtual drop-in session on LibGuides and LibWizard. Since it wasn't recorded, I thought I'd use the LibGuide Tips page to share the questions that came up.

I'm paraphrasing:

1. What's the best approach to creating a new LibGuide?

   A couple of folks who dropped into the session are new to LibGuides and were wondering how best to get started. I hadn't thought to mention this at the time, but Springshare's recorded webinars on Building Your First LibGuide are a good place to begin. They cover pretty much everything we had talked about, including how to copy content from existing guides.

2. Is there a best practice for uploading a video?

   Yes! See this video for a short tutorial on embedding, resizing, and centering content in a media widget.

3. Do all the videos we put in our guides really have to have captions?

   'Fraid so. If you absolutely must use a video that doesn't have captions, you'll need to provide a transcript, but the better practice is to find a captioned alternative.

4. What resources do we have for detecting ADA issues?

   A variety of tools are available, but the one that has been working well for us is WebAIM's WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. It may seem a bit intimidating at first, but it's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. For a quick-start guide to the Wave tool, see the accessibility handouts on the Resources for MDC LibGuide Authors page. Remember, if your guide has more than one page, you'll need to test each page separately.

5. Will the upcoming implementation of Open Athens affect the Box Boutique?

   This was actually my own question, which came up when someone mentioned they were finding the Box Boutique helpful. So, allow me first to insert this shameless plug for the Box Boutique, which offers a selection of pre-programmed catalog and database search boxes that you can easily copy into your LibGuides. As for whether or not Open Athens will mess up anything you've already copied, worry not - I'll be on the case and will make sure any issues get resolved (probably with a shout-out or two to Angel for help!) Open Athens, by the way, will eventually allow for seamless single sign-on to our e-resources (no more pesky borrower ID & PIN), so it'll be worth the hassle in the end.

6. What about the template for the Collection Development Overview guides? Some of the elements are not web accessible.

   True, but the librarians are currently re-thinking the Collection Development Overview guides altogether, and can address any accessibility issues in the process. Stay tuned.

If I missed anything, or if you have more questions or comments, click the "Comments" link at the top of this post to share your thoughts. Let's do another drop-in session in the spring, shall we?

This week's tip shows you the proper way to embed a video and how to resize it to fit inside a LibGuide column. As a bonus, you'll also learn some simple HTML code to center an embedded media widget.

P.S. Fellow math nerds: If you're curious about countable and uncountable infinity, check this out (but don't blame me if your brain explodes!)

A gallery box is a great way to add some color and movement to a LibGuide, but if you want to showcase books from the catalog, there's a wrinkle you might have to iron out. This 5-minute video shows you how.

Our library databases are always changing. Titles change (remember when Hoovers became Mergent Intellect?), URLs change, and sometimes databases just up and go away. What if you've got links to these databases in your LibGuides? Do you have to remember to update your database links manually every time something changes? Well, maybe yes, maybe no. It depends on how you added them in the first place. This 5-minute video shows you the worry-free way to add database links that update automatically.

Boring text box? Give it a lift with a "special container."

Got 2 minutes? Learn to convert multiple tabs to a single page with anchors that let you jump to different sections.

Hi, MDC LibGuide Authors, and welcome to this shiny new page! Here's where you'll find a growing collection of LibGuide & LibWizard tips and announcements.

Although the title is "Tip of the Week," frequency of posts may vary. For now, the goal is weekly (more or less).