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HELP YOUR LIBRARY BE OMNIPRESENT WITHOUT SPENDING A DIMENina McHale, Assistant Professor/Web Librarian
University of Colorado Denver ∙ Auraria Library
Computers in Libraries 2009
THE EMBEDDED, WIDGET-IZED LIBRARY
• iPhone library app• Vendor-created
widgets• iGoogle gadgets• Social networking
sites for libraries
All of these nifty tools are OUR creations; can we share the love?
THE IDEA: FLICKR BADGE CREATOR
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
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?
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
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 folks to get the correct HTML snippets for your resources
View the source code of:http://library.auraria.edu/guides/general/searchboxes.html
THE MAGIC OF HTML FORMS:SIMPLE CATALOG SEARCH
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>
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>
THE MAGIC OF HTML FORMS:COMBINED CATALOG/DATABASE SEARCH
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>
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
EXAMPLES: AURARIA LIBRARY
EXAMPLE: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DULUTH
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…
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
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.htm
l
University of Minnesota Duluth “Widgets” Pages http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/widgets/ http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/widgets/dropdown/index.
htm
CONTACT INFORMATION
Nina McHale, Assistant Professor, Web Librarian
[email protected]://library.auraria.edu/~nmchale/
