Fun with LibGuides

Our library just got a trial account with LibGuides, and I find this to be a very useful way for librarians to get needed data up on the web. They provide you with a template for adding links, podcasts, rss feeds and heaven knows what else in an attractive 3 column format. I did my page as a guide to the digitization projects that we are pursuing at Quinnipiac. After doing the obvious, I found this to be a good way to experiment with things like podcasts and widgets. Here is the first widget I've created there:



I hope this link holds after we change over to a real account. Otherwise, I'll have to remember to change it.

There were a couple of things that wouldn't work for me at first. I dropped a note into their support link and was startled to hear from Slaven Zivkovic within about an hour. One of the problems was a caching situation on my machine. The second was actually a problem in accepting scripts from picturetrail.com. They had the whole thing fixed by the end of the afternoon. If they maintain that level of service, they'll make a lot of friends in a short time. Here is the cube that is also displaying properly on my LibGuides page:

LibGuides is a very useful way for librarians in universities to get their data out without worrying about stepping on the toes of webmasters at their schools. A great product.

Old and new

I reported recently that while Google Books had no language restriction mechanism, a kind reader had sent me coding that would allow a searcher to manually specify a language. Now comes word from the estimable Ben Bunnell at Google that Google Book Search has a language restriction drop down box in advanced book search. You can't miss it - it's the first dropdown and I ran a search on Cervantes to confirm that it works perfectly. Now my already over-fed ego can take heart that I have, in some small way, helped to make Google better.

Lately I've been very absorbed with trying out OCLC's Content DM. After numerous learning experiences (read disasters) in getting my files to display properly, I have started to put together a series that I am quite proud of. For years it has been a point of embarassment when talking to others in the digitization business. The first question is what content management system are you using. I'd look down at my feet and confess that our e-books are just kept in directories on the university's web pages. Wrong answer! If the demo continues to go well, we should be able to make our escape from the kid's table. You can see the early results now by visiting http://cdm266701.cdmhost.com/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/p266701coll3 . This is a collection of tifs taken from handwritten books kept in the Kerry County Library in Tralee, Ireland. They are the meeting notes of the civic leaders who ran the poorhouse in Killarney at the time the Irish Famine was beginning. My technical contact at OCLC, Erik Mayer, deserves a huge thanks for the patient was that he has helped guide me into productive work on this.