Yahoo Internet Style Guide

From The Librarian in Black’s blog

Yahoo Style Guide and Web Content Resources

Sarah Jun 28, 2010 5:15 PM

Yahoo has released a style guide, The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and
Creating Content for the Digital World, in direct competition with the AP Styleguide.  It will be in stores (yes, in digital & physical formats) on July 6th.  In reviewing the Yahoo guide, it’s clear that it is more progressive, modern, and mindful of the internet technologies and web terms and their usage, for example website instead of Web site and email instead of e-mail.   I definitely agree with Yahoo more than AP, and I never thought I’d write that sentence!

The website for the book is a great web content resource in itself, including:

• Shaping your text for online reading (totally useful in briefly teaching library staff to write web content)
• How to write strong headlines/titles
• Search Engine Optimization basics (no snake oil here, just the real basics that apply to the major search engines)
• The Yahoo Word List (tech and communication specific words and their correct usage)

Read Me Vegas

As you may have noticed, Read Me Vegas has had a direction change.  With the lost of staff we had to revise what we were doing with the blogs.  Read Me Vegas will go from an Online discussion group to a blog focusing on eMedia.  Bookin Las Vegas will remain a review blog but there will be less posting of reviews unless we get additional content from Library Staff.  If you would like to post on either blog please contact Susan D. Williams, she will be happy to set you up as an author.

New Features Coming to EBSCO

EBSCO will soon release user interface improvements to our EBSCOhost subscription. While the release is still a few weeks from being implemented, I wanted to provide you with what the changes will be. I will communicate in more detail as the release date nears.

The following information summarizes the most significant changes you will see later this summer in EBSCOhost:

• Limiters and the date slider will move from the right to the left column beside the Result List, which is a more intuitive position for these popular features, consolidating all the ways users can refine and work with their results in one area. For a look at the updated Result List, click on the graphic to the right and then click again to enlarge it.
• Detailed record pages will be more streamlined, and links to full text, your link resolvers, ILL, etc. will be more prominently displayed on the right.
• Users will be able to select multiple clusters and source types when managing results.
• There will be an enhanced PDF Viewer, Content Viewer, HTML Full Text, etc.
• A “breadbox” (i.e. bread crumbs trail) will show users which limiters, expanders and source types have already been selected.
• Simpler overall interface elements will increase the intuitiveness of the user experience. ( So EBSCO says)

WorldCat Search Via Twitter

Found this post today:

Today OCLC Innovation Lab announced a new trial service, #Ask4Stuff<http://community.oclc.org/cooperative/2010/06/sometimes-the-internet-is-just-not-big-enough-for-me.html> . It is a very simple tool for using twitter to find “stuff” within WorldCat. Here are instructions on using provided by OCLC:

#Ask4Stuff is a new, Twitter-based service that returns a WorldCat search when you send a tweet with the tag #Ask4Stuff.  So if you send the following tweet:

#Ask4Stuff lake erie shipwreck

You’ll get a tweet back that says something like:

@YOURNAME A few things about lake erie shipwreck in #Ask4Stuff, check out http://is.gd/cY7gi Where the link then takes you to the WorldCat.org search result for “lake erie shipwreck.”

You can even localize the result to a WorldCat Local instance by including the Local library name as another hash tag.

Example:

#Ask4Stuff #OSU lake erie shipwreck

I have been playing with it and find it quite easy to use.  Here are some examples:

I send “#ask4stuff #TC3 au: hemingway, ernest” via Twitter and get the following back:

Ask4Stuff @BillDrew4 A wide and varied collection of au: hemingway, ernest in #Ask4Stuff at #TC3, look here: http://purl.org/wct/418

The result is a list of works by Ernest Hemingway including books and magazine articles in the TC3 version of WorldCat Local.

You can use other search strategies as well. Here is one for a title search of Where the Wild Things Are within TC3 WorldCat Local:

#ask4stuff #TC3 ti:where the wild things are The resulting reply gives you a rich set of results:

Ask4Stuff @BillDrew4 Not a bad collection of ti:where the wild things are in #Ask4Stuff at #TC3, check out http://is.gd/d27ZW Phrase searching works quite well, too.  Here is one I did:

#ask4stuff “not just cows”

Here are the results:

Ask4Stuff @BillDrew4 We found something on “not just cows” in #Ask4Stuff, check out http://is.gd/d28vZ Many may ask,”Why do this?”  This may be useful. it is outside the box. It also give you a way to do quick searches and share the results with others via Twitter.  OCLC Innovation Lab is to be commended for this effort. Innovative and fun to use!!

[http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=6114faa7-51eb-8639-a1f0-6fe7b678f855]

OCLC<http://technorati.com/tag/OCLC>, OCLC Innovation Lab<http://technorati.com/tag/OCLC%20Innovation%20Lab>, Twitter<http://technorati.com/tag/Twitter>, Ask4Stuff<http://technorati.com/tag/Ask4Stuff>, Innovation<http://technorati.com/tag/Innovation>, Libraries<http://technorati.com/tag/Libraries>

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Posted By Bill Drew to Baby Boomer Librarian<http://babyboomerlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/06/ask4stuff-via-twitter-from-worldcat.html> at 6/24/2010 10:01:00 AM _____

ALA Virtual Conference

ALA Virtual Conference, July 7 and 8, 2010.

A full series of 11 interactive one-hour Web sessions hosted by the Virtual Library. The sessions are listed at www.ala.org/annual. Each interactive program session focuses on some aspect of how to do your job better, and you will learn creative solutions for working smarter in this economy. You will have the opportunity to interact with speakers and other attendees during each session.

Each day will start with a keynote speaker, followed by the sessions, plus an optional 30-minute author lunch (followed by 30 minutes of down time). The conference runs each day from 8:00 a.m. Pacific to 2:00 p.m. Pacific.

You are welcome to attend all or some of the session.  Please email whitej@lvccld.org to reserve your seat as our seating is limited.  Please indicate the session(s) you are attending.  The Video conference will be setup in the Virtual Library Training room.  You will get training credits for attending.  Please confirm with your supervisor before sending your reservation.

New Features for CINAHL

The recent release of several new features have been added to our CINAHL subscription at no additional charge.  These are described below:

• New Limiters
  • There are two “Written by a Nurse” limiters:
    • First Author is a Nurse
    • Any Author is a Nurse
    • More details on them can be found here:  http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=&id=4896&page=1
  • Pre-CINAHL limiter searches just pre-CINAHL. More details can be found here: http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=&id=4404&page=1
  • Human limiter applies to all records which represent research studies on humans. More details can be found here: http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=&id=4895&page=1
• Data Elements Added
  • Digital Object Identifier (DOI): We have added the DOI from 2009 forward.
  • Pubmed Central ID (PMCID): We have added the PMCID from 2009 forward.

OverDrive Changes Their Searching On Their Main Site

Last week, OverDrive launched the new OverDrive Search website, which makes it easier for users to discover digital content from our library’s download website. How, you ask? Well, here are some of the improvements that users will encounter:

1. Keyword Searches: The new search function provides users with full-text searching, which means a search for specific content is smarter and more accurate than before.  I did a quick search for “recipes” in the new search box and BAM!—relevant search results.  (The user can also sort by “Title,” “Publisher” or “Creator” on the “Results” page.) Once a user finds a title they want to checkout, he or she can click on the “Find at a library” button, type in a zip code, and find the closest library that offers the digital title.

2. Local Library Listings: In the zip code search results, library users will now see the name of the library that they are most familiar with.  Say a user in Westerville, Ohio, is looking for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” That user may not know the name “Ohio eBook Project,” but he or she will recognize Westerville Public Library.  The consortium name will still appear in the results, but with the closest library or branch listed alongside.

For our international partners, a user will be able to “Select a Country” right next to the zip code search. If your library offers the title, the region will appear in the “Select a Country” drop down menu.

3. Top Audiobooks & eBooks: The most popular digital books in the OverDrive catalog are now listed on the OverDrive Search homepage. The “Top Audiobooks” and “Top eBooks” slider allows users to browse the most popular titles, listen to samples of audiobooks, and then click-through to the “Title” page. There’s also a link the “Most Downloaded Books from the Library” lists, which power the “Top Audiobooks” and “Top eBooks” slider. The lists are updated on the first of every month.

4. Find at a Bookstore: Some titles are not available at a local library but are available at OverDrive-powered retail websites. With the new search, users can find and purchase digital content by clicking on “Find at a bookstore.” This will provide listings of OverDrive retail partners that offer the eBook or audiobook. And those retail partners use the same software to access the digital titles that the user needs for library downloads.

With “Find at a bookstore,” we’re making sure that users are full-time digital consumers. The more digital content that is available to them, the more likely they will be to come back to find titles available from a local library.

So there you have it—a new OverDrive Search designed with usability and discoverability in mind.

They are still making improvements and have received some helpful feedback from users on making the new OverDrive Search even easier to use. Until they have all the features integrated into the new OverDrive Search, the classic search will still be available at search.overdrive.com/classic.

Note: Our Zipcodes appear to be missing, as I did several searches for items we own and it said it was not available within a 100 miles.  I have sent OverDrive an email requesting us to be added.

What do you think of the new OverDrive Search?

7 Great Tips for Bloggers

Here’s a great article for anyone blogging -  Bloggers: 7 questions to ask before hitting ‘Publish.

Gale’s New Look

Gale has exciting changes in store for you this summer! Select Gale Resource Centers will be replaced with a revolutionary new online learning experience that delivers authoritative, media-rich content in context through a fast, easy, Web-like interface that meets the expectations of today’s more Internet-savvy users.

Resource Centers being upgraded to this new experience include:
• Biography
• History: U.S.
• History: World
• Opposing Viewpoints
• Science
• Student editions (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Canadian)

I’ll let you know when the changes take place.

Webfeat Updated Look

WebFeat now has an updated look to look more in line with the new website.  Because the end of life for WebFeat is coming at the end of the year, I did not want to spend a lot of time on WebFeat so only the left hand navigation has been removed and the background changed to white.  You and your patrons can get to WebFeat under Find Information link look for the Quick Search link.

Remember your can always get back to the library website by clicking on the Library logo picture.

New Website and IE8

Those who are using IE8 will need to have compatibility view enabled in order to see some of the features on the new web site. To set compatibilty view:

1. Select  Tools, from the menu bar
2. Select Compatibility View settings
3. Select  Display All Web Sites in Compatibility View.

This works to see the databases in the gray area on the  Search by Topic page.