Description of Activity – LibGuides
Content/Subject Area: LibGuides
Type: Multiple tutorial videos + practical exercises in creating Subject Area LibGuides
Length: Tutorial Video: Building a LibGuide Basics: Start 8:28am – Finish 12:14pm
Build a Reading List – Advanced tips: Start 12:23pm; Finish 1:44pm Creating the A – Z Database List: Start 4:09pm; Finished 5:15pm
Accessibility for LibGuides: Started 8:24pm; Finished 9:49pm
LibGuides practice: Started Bioscience: Test LibGuide 8:43am while watching
Building a LibGuide Basics. Added a Test Home page, by copying the
Nutrition Home page. Added another page, another copy of Nutrition –
Home, so I could keep going back to it and copying from it. Continually
experimenting while watching Basics video, rewinding and rewatching as
necessary. Finished this section of practice roughly 12:20pm ACDT.
Started experimenting with Books LibGuide page 12:30pm ACDT. Video tutorial finished 1:44pm. Practical experimentation continued. Additional of Gallery boxes to display Book reading lists as sliding carousels completed at 3:25pm. Commenced editing and link checking for books and ebooks 3:27pm. Corrections completed 4:02pm.
Started experimenting with Databases, Journals, and Apps page 4:13pm.
I found that the Nutrition version of this page is close to what I want. The list of
databases is perfect. Major editing needs to be done with Journals and Apps.
Removed Journals and Apps not specifically relevant to Bioscience (4:54pm). Now
I need to search our subscribed databases for journals of relevance to the specific
Discipline areas of the Bioscience modality, and add them to the list.
Added Addition Sources page, for useful website. 5:50pm – 6:53pm ACDT.
Added Referencing page to LibGuides, 7:11pm – 7:43pm ACDT.
Added Assignment Help page to LibGuides: 7:53pm – 7:59pm ACDT
Started link testing for Assignment Help Guide: 8:01pm – 8:18pm ACDT
One of the final steps for the guides is making the content accessible. Started
Video “Accessibility for Libguides” at 8:24pm ACDT; finished at 9:49pm ACDT.
Took knowledge learned an reviewed newly created pages, particularly images
And embedded content. There are a few places where images have been used
Of text to get around the issue with some platform and the hanging indent. These
Images need to be replaced with actual text.
Level: Librarian/ Liaison Librarian
Organisers: SpringShare
Presenters: Anonymous
Format: 4 Tutorial videos: recordings of webinars. Practical experimentation with SpringShares LibGuides to create 6 new pages for the Bioscience department, at current standards. Total duration of activity: 16 hours
Task/Objective: To recreate the Bioscience LibGuides to be consistent with the current LibGuides standard for all of the modalities taught at Endeavour College of Natural Health (ECNH).
Background: Over the past 12 months, LibGuides provided by the ECNH Library Department have been re-developed based upon customer feedback. Though LibGuides are an ever-changing resource, the ideal template for LibGuides has been decided. Currently, the LibGuides for the Bioscience modality, and Bioscience subjects, use the old and superseded version of Endeavour LibGuides. The objective of this project is to develop new LibGuides for the Bioscience modality in line with the new standards.
Responsibility for creation, maintenance, and continuing development of LibGuides at ECNH is given to Liaison Librarians for each modality. As part of their position, each of the Campus Librarians at ECNH are given a modality to discipline with which to Liaise. My liaison area is Bioscience; this includes the Biological Sciences in general, but also the related disciplines: Human Biological Science, Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Physical Examination. These disciplines have been chosen to align as closely as possible with subjects offered with ECNH courses, Bachelors of Health Science in modalities of natural medicine.
The current versions of the Bioscience LibGuides have separate pages for each discipline area, which resources specific to that discipline on each page. This method creates a grate deal of redundancy, with the same resources presented on multiple pages. Students have also reported that the format makes it difficult to find what they’re looking for. The main task is to re-organise the pages completely, creating pages related to content, with discipline specific resources of that type of content listed separately on those pages. Also, the current guides are not searchable. Part of the project is to add tags and alt-text to all of the content to facilitate searchability and accessibility.
It has been a long time (over eight years) since I’ve created LibGuides, and I’ve largely forgotten how. This project gives me an opportunity to re-learn the basics, then develop more advanced skills to create high-quality guides appropriate for current standards.
URLs for each of the six LibGuides created and published at the completion of this project:
Home: https://endeavour.libguides.com/c.php?g=912758
Books: https://endeavour.libguides.com/c.php?g=912758&p=6948414
Databases etc: https://endeavour.libguides.com/c.php?g=912758&p=6948416
Additional Resources: https://endeavour.libguides.com/c.php?g=912758&p=6948421
Referencing: https://endeavour.libguides.com/c.php?g=912758&p=6948454
Assignment Help: https://endeavour.libguides.com/c.php?g=912758&p=6948455
Tutorial Video and Project Notes –
Building a LibGuide Basics –
Presenter pushes LibApps; though we’ve experimented with other ShingShare Apps in the past, we found them unnecessary. ECNH only uses LibGuides.
Re-use of content: Copy or Map
Copy: Make a duplicate that you can edit; won’t effect original.
Mapping: creates a connection to the original; editing updates orig. AVOID.
Accessibility – this might link to inclusivity
Top nav and side nav discussion. I much prefer top nav, so will use what I’m comfortable with.
Side nav: Nielsen research recently found the most users spend 80% of their time focused on the left side of pages, possibly because advertising is increasingly focused on the right, so users concentrate on the left. Worth noting that the updated LibGuides utilise left side nav, predominantly.
Advantage to top nav is that it allows the creation of up to 4 column.
Process: First, log in.
Templates: Experiment with side nav template
Re-using existing pages: Task: Copy Discipline home page from another modality. The Nutrition guide homepage seems the best fit.
Editing notes. Change title, replace background image (later),
Adding Boxes – 4 types of boxes
- Standard Box
- Tabbed Box
- Gallery Box – Ideal for displaying books
- Profile Box
Experimentation: Copy the whole page worked well, but I have to tweak the banner. It took some time to find the banner assets, but there not ideal either. I also need to add a caption, which means I need to study the Nutrion homepage again, to see what the box is made up of. I think it’s just adding a Rick Text Box beneath, but I want to check, and copy most of the wording.
Done:
Interesting advice for adding images: instead of entering a number of pixels, you can enter percentages. Definitely worth experimenting with, possibly in ThinkSpace.
Another thought: I can probably use LibGuides to structure my evidence images for the ThinkSpace pages. It’s much easier to use!!!!
Assetts: This is particularly important, as I’m developing my LibGuides later, and there are many assets that have already been created that I can use. First, this is ideal, because it maintains the standards for content across all the guides. Second, it’s efficient use of time; why reinvent the wheel.
Video demonstrated adding books, as part of adding assets. I will be doing this, but at the moment I’m working on the Home Page. I intend to create a page for books, and will use another Video tutorial to help with that.
Media widget asset: YouTube videos etc.
Check video for Embedding Videos.
Adding Databases widget
Databases added from those that are in the A – Z databases list already.
Tasks: I need to find the assets for the books box, so I can change this:
So that it reads Bioscience Books, within the same box style and font.
Tagging: 43:30 –
Build a Reading List – Advanced tips – Notes
Selected Chinese Medicine LibGuide Books page, as most suited to my needs.
Added Books page, copying
In creating the 2nd carasel, I’ve noticed that none of the chemistry ebooks have been added to our LibGuides collection as assets. This requires checking the latest subject outline for the two major chemistry subject, BIOB111 and BIO211, and adding each of the reading to LibGuides as assets, before adding them to reading lists.
Added by 2:20pm
Same process needs to be followed for Pathology
Pathology books and ebooks added by 2:43pm.
Same process to be followed for pharmacology
Completed by 3:00pm
Same process to be followed for Clinical examination
Completed at 3:25pm
Editing and link checking commenced at 3:25pm. Corrections completed 4:02pm
Moving on to the next page for the Bioscience Library Guide: Databases, Journals, and Apps
Started the Creating the A – Z Databases List video
Start experimenting with adding the Databases page to my Bioscience pages.
Note that the registered time is AEST. This is 4:13pm AEDT.
Edited list of Journal and Apps, removing those specifically relevant only to Nutrition, and adding in Journals that were listed and active subscription on earlier LibGuides.
Next step: I need to go through our subscribed Journals for each modality area, and add in appropriate Journals for each Discipline area within the Bioscience modality.
Completed adding a selection of Bioscience Journals from all required disciplines 5:46pm ACDT.
Next Step: Adding Addition Resources page. Similarly, I can copy an existing page from the Nutrition Guides, change the banner, and replace the Nutrition content with Bioscience content.
Started 5:50pm
Banner changed and Online Resources added for Bioscience subjects:
Completed 6:53pm ACDT.
New step: Adding a Referencing Help page. After reviewing the other modality guides, the template I prefer is that of the Chinese Medicine Guide. It has links to tutorial content, but excellent examples of modality-specific references for each type of source.
Copying begun 7:11pm ACDT
Replaced Banner.
Next step: replace each example with appropriate examples from Bioscience disciplines.
Also added examples of StatPearls, as these are hard to reference, and some of the most common referencing difficulties students have with referencing content for Bioscience subjects:
Referencing page complete 7:43pm ACDT.
Final page to be Added to Bioscience LibGuide: Assignment Help. Once again, the Chinese Medicine LibGuide is the best template.
Added 7:53pm ACDT
Changed Banner.
Replaced Chinese Medicine Assignment content with Pharmacology (BIOP211) assignment help content:
Link testing: Several of the links were broken and needed to be removed. Completed 8:18pm ACDT.
The major foundations for the new LibGuides have largely been completed. One of the final steps is to improve accessibility and inclusiveness, largely through Alt-text. I don’t know very much about this, or how to do it.
Thankfully, there is a handy video: Accessibility for LibGuides.
WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.1
Goals for version 2.1: Improve accessibility for: users with cognitive or learning disabilities
Users with low vision
Users with disabilities on mobile devices
13 Guidelines
? Success Criteria
3 Levels of Conformance: A, AA, AAA
Guideline 1.3: Adaptable content that can be presented in different ways without using information.
Semantics: Make sure to use Headings when appropriate; don’t just increase the font.
Images
Guideline 1.1 –
To make images accessible, they’ll need alt-text in most situations.
If an image in functional, it needs alt-text to describe it’s function.
Alt-Text Decision Tree: Method to figure out whether images need alt-text.
Images with text:
If the same information can be conveyed with text alone, an image should not be use. There are a few referencing examples that are images of text, because of the damned hanging indent.
In galleries, best to set slide show to off, for maximum accessibility. Already done on all of my pages.
Potential to cause seizures: Don’t have galleries play at high speeds (best not to have them play at all), or with bright flashes, or the colour red.
Embedded Content:
Using the content from the webinar, I’ve identified some content on my new pages that presents problems for accessibility. On the Referencing, there are some referencing examples where there are images of text. This is due to the fact that some platform create problems for referencing, because they don’t allow a hanging indent. These images will have to be replaced with text, but I need to find out how to do so, with a hanging indent. This will require extra research. Replacement of images with text completed at 10:32pm ACDT.
10:30am, 09.01.2023: Collaboration with team to complete and publish LibGuides.
There are 3 major edits to the guides that need to be completed before publishing the new LibGuides, and I need to collaborate with my team to do this.
One the Homepages, there are two links that are made using Canva. Two other librarians have access to Canva for our department, and I need their assistance with creating the image links. A badge-like image for a Contact link, and a decorative books to link from the Home page to the book page.
I also need to figure out how to present referencing examples in text (for accessibility) with a hanging indent. So far, the Rich Text tool for LibGuides has prevented me from creating indents for the referencing examples, but I know that other guides have managed it, so I’m enquiring how.
Also, added links to Anatomy systems videos to Additional Resources – Video Resources tab.
New guides made live, and old guides hidden, 12:20pm 9.01.2023