Library Guides (http://guides.library.umass.edu/) are Web sites created by Subject Specialist Librarians. These sites contain links and resources which help your students do research by highlighting books, databases and other resources that are most appropriate for the topic. Once a Library Guide has been created for your course, it is possible to “embed” a small, Flash-based version of the guide on a page in SPARK or any Web site (note, the embedding code will not work in a Blog).
Step One: Request a Library Guide
Contact your Subject Specialist in the Library and ask if they can create a Library Guide for your course (not every Subject Specialist has worked with the tool as of this writing, so allow for some lead time in case they need to get familiar with the tool first.)
Step Two: Get the Embed Code for the Widget
Once the Library Guide has been created, you can simply create a link to the guide, or ask the Subject Specialist to send you the code for embedding the Widget. The code will look something like this:
<object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” data=”http://widgets.libguides.com/lgwss.swf?wid=47″ width=”190″ height=”300″ ><param name=”movie” value=”http://widgets.libguides.com/lgwss.swf?wid=47″ /><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /></object>
You can then paste this code into the HTML of a Web page or in the Header or Footer of a SPARK page. When viewed in a browser with a Flash Player, this widget will appear directly on the page, providing links to Guides for the course and providing an easy way to search the Library Catalog.
(If you need help learning how to paste the code into a Web site or SPARK, contact the Instructional Media Lab at 545-2823.)