Proposed Changes to Home Page

Adding Search Boxes to the Home Page

Prompted by the Integrated Article Search Box from Ebsco on the E-Resources page, the Web Committee explored adding it to the Home Page. This necessitated revising the search box to the Library Catalog so that they would look somewhat alike. (Note: the search box is a widget from EbscoHost and is really an image so we had to do something similar for the catalog search box.) Sylvia Owens, Reference Facilitator, was consulted and her input incorporated into the draft page.

http://library.austincc.edu/index-libhomeboxes-Owens.php

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Resolution of links to the E-Resources Page

After much discussion and getting input from librarians and students, the Web Committee is proposing one (1) link from the sidebar menu heading (Articles & Research) to replace the current two (2) links: A-Z List of E-Resources and E-Resources by Subject.

We've played around with lots of wording and tentatively propose Articles & Reference.

The wording can be seen through the link above to the page with search boxes.

Solving the E-Resources links problem

During the break, I was asked to make the destination of the links to the A-Z list a little clearer (among some other things). Here's what I attempted to do:

• Highlight the A-Z area on the e-res page when the A-Z link is clicked and
• Highlight the Browse Databases area when the E-resources by Subject is clicked.
• I felt the other suggestions were not significant or not feasible and decided to stick with the two suggestions above.

This actually worked wonderfully well and the areas were highlighted with one of the cyan colors and stood out modestly but visibly on my desktop and Eddie's desktop on both Firefox and Internet Explorer 8. HOWEVER...

When we tested on the PACS, the highlighting did not show up unless you were directly in front of the screen. If you were even a little to the side, you could not see the highlighting. Aargh! (Imagine my chagrin. Fortunately, the EVC staff were amused by my tantrum.)

While I think that this is the better solution, we cannot implement if the highlighting isn't visible on our PACs. So, I made the head of each section Red and Large when the appropriate link is clicked. I may try something different this week if I can think of something.

Old Deleted Study Guides Redirect

=========================================
Old Study Guides
=========================================
After a vigorous complaint from a faculty member, I consulted
with Red and Barbara about a possible solution and asked for
their input. I've taken Barbara's suggestion and created a
redirect page for the displaced or deleted study guides. --mp

-----------------------------------------
1 Study Guides on ResGuides
-----------------------------------------

1.1 Developing Research Topics

1.2 Documentation and Plagiarism

1.3 Finding & Evaluating Info on the Internet

1.4 Finding Biographical Information

1.5 Finding Book Reviews

1.6 Finding Books, Media, and Computer Software

1.7 Finding Literary Criticism

1.8 Finding Periodical Articles

1.9 Library Classification System


-----------------------------------------
2 Redirect to Specific ResGuide Tab
-----------------------------------------

2.1 Writing Effective Business Letters
(http://researchguides.austincc.edu/busltr)

2.2 Magazine vs Journals
(http://researchguides.austincc.edu/content.php?pid=41933&sid=308710)

-----------------------------------------
3 Redirect to ByeBye page
-----------------------------------------
(http://library.austincc.edu/help/ByeBye.php)


3.1 XTest-Taking Skills

3.2 XStrategies for Test Questions

3.3 XThe Writing Process

AskAcademic / LivePerson Changes

I have made the changes in Live Person and activated the three files
either updated or added to the website:
-- ask.php
-- faq-chat-info.php
-- faq-AskAcademic.php

There were a couple of glitches and I wasted about 20 minutes chatting
with LivePerson help until I had an AHA! moment.  All is fixed now and
everything should be working correctly.  I'll document the process in
the LS Web project and link from any reference chat administrative pages
on the wiki.

I'll also include those steps here for record-keeping:

Notes on Live Person web chat window maintenance:

Go to the Admin Console to make changes.

Chat windows are maintained through the Vistor Experience > Chat option.

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LivePerson Chat windows:

• Chat Window (What they see if we are available after completing the Pre-Chat survey.)


• Pre-Chat (Patron Info)


• Off-line (Email Us)(What they see if we are unavailable)


• Exit Survey (optional)

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WINDOW EDITOR:

Appearance Settings for EACH window is found in the WINDOW EDITOR:

• [Window Skin] "Modern Look"


• [Dimensions]  475px x 500px for all three windows.


• [Buttons] Currently, we do not use a button to get to Live Chat so ignore that tab.


• [Branding] Graphics: We use custom graphics which are in the /graphics/chat/ folder. Our graphic size for all is 85x180. These graphics display on the right of each window.




• Chat Window: (http://library.austincc.edu/graphics/chat/active_window.jpg)


• Pre-Chat: same as above


• Off-line: (http://library.austincc.edu/graphics/chat/leave_message.jpg)


• Exit Survey: http://library.austincc.edu/graphics/chat/thanks_message.jpg)

[Extras] Settings for cusomizing printing, email, etc.

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SURVEY TAB

Windows content is edited from the SURVEY tab:

-- Each window must be edited separately. Be sure that the window you want is "enabled", a setting at the top of the editing screen for that window.

PRE CHAT

[Survey Heading] Very flexible.  Can contain HTML coding as well as simple text.

[Survey Questions] Easy to edit and add.

EXIT

[Survey Heading] Very flexible.  Can contain HTML coding as well as simple text.

[Email Setup for Chat Transcripts] easy to edit

[Survey Questions] Easy to edit and add.

CHAT OPERATOR

We do not use the Chat Operator Window which is not what you might think it is. This is the user experience, not the chat operator console which is set up elsewhere.

OFFLINE

[Survey Heading] Very flexible.  Can contain HTML coding as well as simple text.

[Email Setup for Offline Survey] easy to edit

[Survey Questions] Easy to edit and add.

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We do not use the other two tabs -- Buttons and Invitations

Subject Listing for LIbGuides

Upon closer examination, the subject listing for e-resources isn't quite as good a match for LibGuides as it is for e-resources. Then we have those pesky workforce things. See below:
................................................................
Browse e-resources by subject:
Art
Biography --XX (not relevant)
Business and Economics
Chemistry
Computer Science
Education
Environmental Science
Government and Law
Health & Medicine
History
Literature and Literary Criticism
Multicultural Studies --XX (not relevant)
Music
News and Newspapers --XX (not relevant)
Philosophy and Religion
Psychology
Sciences
Sociology
Technology --XX (not relevant) ??? unless we might say Technology & Workforce
Texas History and Culture --?? (under History and Sociology)
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We'd need to add things like General Reference and Foreign Languages.