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LibGuides 2 Training at QUL

This is a Guide to the use of LibGuides at Queen's University. It is 'in progress' at the moment and will continue to be built upon by the LibGuides Implementation Group.

Listing Guides on the Library Website

There are two ways to add guides to the Library website (Drupal), dynamically and manually. There are pros and cons to method:

Dynamically

This means that guides are listed automatically using a bit of Javascript code.

Pros

  • Guide links, titles and descriptions are automatically pulled in from LG2. When authors update their guides, the Drupal pages do not need to be updated to match
  • No need for manual ordering (i.e. A-Z listing) as this is the default behaviour.
  • Different display options (bulleted list, list with descriptions, drop down)

Cons

  • Somewhat limited ways to order lists (A-Z, by popularity, date published)
  • Not always a logical way to associate listing guides with specific pages in Drupal (e.g. when listing a subject guide for a separate subject on a Research by Subject page)
  • Possible to accidentally overwrite the JS code snipper when editing the Drupal page.

Manually

Pros

  • Guide order is fully customizable
  • Custom guide description can be used following each guide link

Cons

  • Takes work to update all the associated Drupal pages. Can lead to 404s if guides change their URLs or are unpublished.

Which Method Should I Use?

Whenever possible, dynamic listing is preferred so that we minimize the chances for broken links (404s) in the future and to save the effort required in keeping Drupal pages up-to-date.

Manual listing may be needed when you are not able to achieve the desired order or there is no logical way to create a dynamic mapping within the context of the page. 

Please note that it is possible to combine both methods on a single Drupal page.

Conventions for Adding Guides

Please use the following conventions when adding guides to the Library website:

  1. Use a clear title of Guides (usually an H2)
    It's important that we don't refer to guides as pages or vice versa; pages should refer to Drupal pages and Guides should refer LibGuides.
  2. Use bulleted lists
    This is the default behaviour when listing guide dynamically and we want to follow the same convention when listing guides manually.

How Does Dynamic Guide Listing Work?

LibGuides admins will be able to add a bit of JavaScript code to Drupal pages. SpringShare refers to this bit of code as a widget. You can read more about widgets in Springshare's Widgets & APIs guide.