Short-term Subject Guide Improvements
Please peruse this copy of Ellen’s theater guide with the improvements discussed in the April 10th instruction meeting. Changes include a link to the “Ask a Librarian” web page and a user feedback form at the bottom of the guide. These changes can be made quickly to all subject guides by inserting them in the subject guide template.
The form does not function at this time; originally, the form was planned to be sent to an alias email (with a cc to the author of the guide) yet to be created, possibly “libraryinstruction@cudenver.edu.” Another possibility that presents itself, as I’ve just completed my PHP/MySQL class, is creating a database to store the responses. The advantage to the latter is not having to manage emailed form results in an alias inbox that will inevitably receive spam. The disadvantage to a database is that it requires a further level of programming, and will take longer to complete. However, a MySQL database is better for long term storage of data than an alias email account. Are these short responses information that we would like to store long-term?
Your thoughts?
3 comments:
Whoops! I took out the "Ask a Librarian" at each header that Louise mentions. Have another look, if you like. The feedback form has a link from the top of the page that says "Was this guide helpful?"
Bill, I removed the last "Information Commons" post because this thread is specifically intended to be a discussion of the short term changes to the subject guides.
I think a law heading would be a good idea, because those who are looking for this kind of information probably won’t think to look for it under “find articles by subject”. However, the same can be said for those who are looking for company and business information. That being the case, shouldn’t we also have a “company information” or a “company/business information” heading as well? I think this would be a good idea, though I’m aware that it might make this section of the homepage a little crowded!
If we do choose to add a law heading, I think it would be equally useful to our users to also add a company/business heading. I don’t see one as being any more valuable than the other. Therefore, I would say that if we don’t have room for both on the homepage then we should probably have neither of them there. In that case perhaps we should re-title “find articles by subject” in such a way that it indicates that articles, and legal and company information, can all be found there (though I can’t for the life of me think of what that new title would be!). At least that way we can cover all the bases!
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