The Libguide of Libguides: Questions

Please send your question to the Libguides Team elist so we can keep track of them and add them to the list on this page as they're answered.

Libguides Elist

Q: How do I add a Google Scholar widget to my page?

• use the Google Scholar box type

Q: How do I add a widget from (Widgetbox), etc. to my page?

• use the Rich Text/Dynamic Content/Scripts box type
• use the "plain text" input link

Q: How do I reduce the length of a box?

• sometimes extra paragraph tags get added to guides for mysterious reasons. If you go into the plain text editor you can usually see them and delete them.
• you can also turn off comments for a box to save some space

Q: How do I reduce the space between lines of text?

• this depends on which kind of text, which specific kinds of boxes, and where on the page. It's determined by site-wide CSS, and Thom can make changes if necessary.

Q: Do search widgets like the ones that Chris S added to a libguide have to take up an entire box?

• No. The widget code goes into a Rich Text/Dynamic/Scripts box type and can be combined with anything else...but if you create a widget people might want to share you might want to also create a plain version and put it on the Search Widgets page.

Q: How do I change the size of my profile photo? The one I'm using (in R:PhotographsRef photos for web€9 Reference Photos) doesn't seem to be editable.

• Photoshop or another image editing program. Thom is available to help with this.

Q: How can I get a list of all of my published guides? I'd like a "back to libguides home" so I can show my other guides.

• the Libguides homepage will have lists of guides by author, subject, and a few other categories
• you can also link to your Libguides profile, which will always have an up-to-date list of your published guides
• you can create a widget with an automatic collection of your guides, or a hand-selected list, to put into another website, a guide, or even a Blackboard page.

Q: What's the best way to get a proxied link in Libguides?

• copy a database URL from either the Central Database list or the catalog
• Using the Links and Lists box type, enter the permanent URL for the database or article and check the "proxy this URL" box

Q: The Comments feature takes up a lot of space in my boxes/I don't want users commenting on my guide. How can I turn them off?

• you can turn off comments for individual boxes by using the "disable comments" link you'll see in the box when you're in edit mode for the guide.
• you can turn comments on or off for a whole guide at a time by selecting the "Toggle all comments" link in the Guide Settings menu.

Q: How does commenting work?

• If you leave comments on you will get an email from the system each time a new comment is posted, and you can review the comment (and delete it if necessary) before it's published.
• Experience from other Libguides libraries indicates that not many users make use of this feature, so there is no need to worry about your inbox being flooded. And if that happens, you can easily turn off comments for either a box or an entire guide (see above).

Q: Can I suggest additional tab names?

• yes.

Q: For box types other than Rich Text, why can we only add our own descriptive text at the top of the box and not on the bottom?

• Beth: Should we make this suggestion to Springshare?
• Chris: The suggestion has already been made several times, especially concerning Links and Lists. The extra features of Links and Lists require the links to go into a database, and that dictates the format. Discussion of issues at Springshare Forums. They're not saying no, they're just saying they'd have to re-program the whole feature to make it work.

Q: Can I add the professor for my class as an editor?

• It's not possible to add an editor without giving them full publishing rights, so that's not something we're considering at this time. However, you do have some other options, depending on what you need to be able to do.
  • a "User submitted link" box allows you to let visitors post links to your guide. Note: you'll be notified when a link is posted, but it will be live by the time you find out about it.
  • the "Documents and Files" box is another possibility. You could collaborate with your faculty member on the document, then post it yourself to the guide
  • It's possible to embed a shared Google Doc into a Rich Text box.
• it's also perfectly OK to pre-collaborate with your faculty member. Change the status of the guide to "private" and send him/her the URL. You can then make changes before the guide is published.

Q: Why do multiple profile boxes keep appearing on my guides?

• When someone with "editor" status on a guide creates a new page, the editor's profile is added to the page after the profile(s) for the page owner(s). Apparently this happens even if co-owners are also editors. The solution is to have an admin (Chris or Thom) reset guide ownership to what it should be.
  Springshare Lounge discussion

Q: Why aren't the links to other guides/other boxes working?

• the links change when a guide goes from unpublished to published; usually it's not possible to link to an unpublished guide or box
• NOTE: if you're doing a table of contents for your guide, you'll need to do it after you publish the guide (or rework the links) to make it work.

Q: I'm getting an error message when I try to link to a podcast/RSS feed.

• The Podcast and RSS feed box types are designed to manage a subscription to a feed, and to update the contents every time the page is loaded. If you're linking to one item in an RSS feed or one episode of a podcast, just provide the link to the individual article using a Rich Text or other box type
• feeds that aren't constantly updated sometimes cause error messages rather than a simple "Nothing New Here", which would be clearer. It sometimes helps to run the feed through Yahoo Pipes or Feed to JS (see Thom's descriptions).

Q: How come when I search for "iced_beverages" I don't get all the items tagged with that term?

• the search box on the homepage only searches page titles and box contents, not tags. The search box on the tag results page is set to search for tags first, then full text. Discussion on LG forums

Q: How can I randomize the results of a New Acquisitions RSS feed from the catalog?

• Once you have the url for your rss feed.  Change the beginning of the url from this:
  
  http://www.library.tufts.edu/rss.asp? . . . .
  
  to this:
  
  http://www.library.tufts.edu/rssRandom.asp? . . . . .

Q: Is it possible to change the owner of a guide?

• Yes. Just send an email to Chris Strauber (chris.strauber@tufts.edu).