It's been 10 years since we launched our LibGuides Tips & Tricks in the SpringyNews Newsletter. And over the years, we've shared a lot of tips. To that end, we're rounding up our top five favorite LibGuides Tips & Tricks in this blog post. For those who've already read them and want a refresher or those of you who might have missed the early ones - this post is for you! Here's to 10 years of LibGuide Tips & Tricks and 10 more years of tips in the future.
Please Note: All of the below LibGuides Tips are from several years ago, and in the meantime, we've pushed out lots of updates and changes to LibGuides. So while the functionality still remains in the Tips we've specifically listed below, some of the screenshots might have changed in the interim. Additionally, if you decide to explore some of the older SpringyNews editions, some of those Tips mentioned might no longer be applicable due to changes in LibGuides over the years.
5. Properly Formatting Your Friendly URLs
SpringyNews Edition: FUNctional Design (Jan, 2017)
It's not enough to just give your guide a friendly URL (don't forget to assign friendly URLs to pages too!), you should also make sure your URLs are formatted properly. This tip covers the why, and how, of properly formatting your LibGuide friendly URLs so they're scannable, hackable, and easy to type.
4. Optimizing Access to Your Content
SpringyNews: Short & Sweet (Feb, 2015)
This LibGuides Tip is so easy to implement, and gives you quick keyboard access to your top-used LibGuides and Assets. Plus, it helps push the 'old content' down the list so it's not cluttering up your view. Springys use this all the time to organize our own content!
3. Creating a Guide Thumbnail
SpringyNews: Light the Torch (Sep, 2016)
Creating a guide thumbnail is like taking a screenshot of your guide and attaching it to the metadata information of the URL. This way, every time your guide is shared on social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) - it automatically pulls in the guide thumbnail image to accompany the social post. It makes your social posts more visual! And that increases visibility and traffic. Take a minute and comb through your guides to ensure a guide thumbnail is added to all of them.
2. Adding in Redirect URLs
It's happened to all of us - you find a link on a website and you click it and.... nothing. A dead link. A little Googl'ing later, and you find the new, and updated URL. Why didn't the old URL just redirect you to the new one? Well, your users might feel the same way when you update the URLs of your LibGuides, so be sure to put redirects in place so they never get a dead URL from you again.
1. Writing Effective Alt Text
SpringyNews: Return of the Student (Aug, 2017)
This is probably our favorite Tip of all time - because it's useful inside and outside of LibGuides. If you think every image you add to your LibGuides need ALT text, think again. This LibGuides Tip covers not just how to add ALT text but also when you should add it, and when you shouldn't. This is a great way to make sure that your accessible guides are actually accessible and not 'repeating' words through screenreader software.
We hope you enjoyed the roundup of our favorite LibGuides Tips & Tricks over the years. And if you don't already, be sure to subscribe to get our SpringyNews newsletter sent directly to your inbox.
If I use a dark color for a scheduled person, how can I change the color of their name to white so that it will be more visible when viewing the schedule?
Hi Linda!
I’m afraid there isn’t currently a way to change the text color when editing a shift in LibStaffer, only the background color. We’d suggest sticking to lighter colors to maintain contrast.
All the best,
Springy Lilly