Technology Integration Services – University of Texas Libraries
For those of you who have been invited to begin using Google Wave, we have provided instructions for adding our University of Texas Libraries gadget to waves. It enables you to search our resources, chat with a librarian, and read the latest news from the Libraries.
Our hope is that this gadget will enhance users’ experience when using Google Wave to collaborate on group research projects.
For the past several weeks we’ve been hard at work on a new project that will dynamically insert course-specific library information into each UT Blackboard course.
Students will access this new feature by clicking a “Research Tools” link in the menu bar, which is automatically added to all Blackboard courses at UT (see screenshot below). This new section will provide contact information for the subject bibliographer responsible for the course, a link to the subject guide for the course, search tools, and more research assistance.
The secret to doing this was to use Blackboard’s template variables. They enable you to create a URL that can pass information such as username, course prefix, course number, etc. In our case, we created a link that looked like this: http://www.ourlink.com/file.php?course=@X@course.course_id@X@ … which passed the course ID as a variable to our PHP script. We were then able to look up the course-specific information from our XML file. Click the thumbnail below to view a diagram that details the process:
The end result is a course-specific tool that students can use while conducting research in their courses. It also enables the library to make more students and faculty aware of the services that are available to them. Click here to view screenshots of the final product.
LibX is a useful tool that was created by the Virginia Tech Libraries. It enables other libraries to create a Firefox add-on that includes features such as:
Below is a quick screencast of the search toolbar in action…
You can install the UT Libraries’ LibX add-on here, or build your own.
TIS added some new features (chat, more search options) to the UT Libraries’ iGoogle gadget. Click here to add it to your iGoogle page.
If you are interested in creating your own iGoogle gadget:
A few weeks ago we launched an updated version of our Facebook app for UT Libraries. The application includes search tools, instant messaging, video tutorials, our “How Do I” wiki, and library news.
We followed the instructions written by Gath Adams to create the app. Our hope is to expand on our work and include some more community building features, similar to the Facebook app created by the University of Michigan.
We recently created a Web browser search plugin for our library catalog. The plugin is based on the OpenSearch standard.
If you are interested in creating something similar for your library, feel free to use our code as a starting point for your XML file. Then, post an autodiscovery link in the header of your catalog.
