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LibApps Overview + Help

Introduction to LibGuides

Watch Your First LibGuide: Side Navigation (60 min)

NOTE: Watch Your First LibGuide: Top Tab Navigation (55 min) instead if you use top tab navigation.

Video titled "Your First LibGuide (Side Nav)"This video's chapters include:

  • LibGuides Overview (1:46)
  • Layout Options (9:13)
  • Logging in and Navigation (15:33)
  • Creating a Guide (19:07)
  • Pages, Boxes, Rich Text, and Assets (23:47)
  • Publishing Guide (50:54)

Watch Best Practices for Starting a Guide (43 min)

Video titled "Best Practices for Starting a Guide"This video's chapters include:

  • Creating Guides and Guide Layout (1:37)
  • Guide Pages (5:59)
  • Information in a Box (18:57)
  • Layout Options (27:17)

Accessibility logo from Accessibility SparkAccessibility and WCAG

How users experience the world can be permanent, temporary, situational, or episodic and falls within a physical, cognitive, sensory, and perceptual spectrum. Accessibility is the goal of providing equal access to all users in all situations. To meet it, we comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards.

 

Accessibility logo fro WellesleySystem-Level Settings

Library Communications aligns our system-level styles with WCAG standards, UCB web accessibility policy, and UCB brand guidelines/visual identity standards.

Customizing fonts, font sizes, and colors risks violating these standards and guidelines.

 

Watch Accessibility for LibGuides (50 min)

Video titled "Accessibility for LibGuides"

This video's chapters include:

  • WCAG 2.2 Introduction (00:39)
  • Text Sections (18:20)
  • Images (28:21)
  • Embedded Media (37:02)
  • Style Customization (38:42)
  • Accessibility Testing Tools (44:58)

""

Use simple, linear layouts that:

  • Do NOT rely on tables (ex: use tables for tabular data only).
  • Do NOT require users to scroll excessively or in two dimensions (ex: design for mobile flexibility and responsiveness).

Use clear, descriptive headings that:

  • Are properly ordered (H1, H2, H3, etc.) based on sequence/hierarchy, not visual preference (ex: LibGuides headings start with H3).
  • Are (a) preceded by two blank lines, (b) followed by one blank line, and (c) contain no blank lines.
  • Place what is most important first.

RESOURCES: Headings (Berkeley Digital Accessibility)
ASSESSMENT TOOLS: WAVE (WebAim)

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Use text that:

  • Conveys meaning without relying (solely) on sensory characteristics (ex: shape, color, visual location, orientation, sound, etc.).
  • Complies with minimum contrast requirements (4.5:1 contrast ratio for standard text, 3:1 for large text). 
  • Is NOT underlined (except for citations and links, the latter of which are automatically underlined in LibGuides).
  • Uses lists that include only list items and begin with the same type of label (ex: bullets, numbers, dashes).
  • Uses lists that, when:
    • Unordered (ex: bullets), do NOT have a prescribed order.
    • Ordered (ex: numbers, letters, roman numerals), have a prescribed order and are ordered in sequence.

Use descriptive links that:

  • Clearly communicate their destination and do not use lone hypertext phrases like "click here", "learn more", and "read more".
  • Are NOT identical or (too) similar to links that appear on the same page but direct users to different pages.
  • (When linking to files) are accompanied by their type (ex: "form", "doc", etc.) in parentheses and link only to accessible files.

RESOURCES: Links (Berkeley Digital Accessibility), Lists (Berkeley Digital Accessibility)
ASSESSMENT TOOLS: WAVE (WebAim)

Managing LibGuides

Where Guides Appear on the Landing Page

LibGuides landing page tabs, including "by Subject", "by Group", "by Type", "by Owner", and "All Guides"

Guides appear on the landing page organized by "Subject", "Group", "Type", and "Owner". Add your guides to the first three tabs by assigning subjects, groups, and types, respectively. 

 

LibGuides tool for adding "Subjects"Subjects and Subject Guides

Add a guide to the "by Subject" tab by assigning a subject to it. (Delist it from the tab by removing the assigned subject.) Add as many subjects to a guide as you like at any time.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please add ONLY those subjects that already appear on the landing page to prevent proliferation of subjects.

 

LibGuides tool for adding "Tags"Tags

Add "tags" to a guide to improve its search engine discoverability (note: adding tags doesn't impact the landing page). Add as many as you believe will help users find your guide(s).

What are Assets?

Assets are saved/embedded links, books, documents, widgets, etc. we store in (and manage from) our assets library that you can add to your guides. When possible, we recommend using existing assets instead of creating new ones.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While adding Database Assets to your guide(s) is the same as adding other assets, Database Assets live in a different location and are managed separately by the Electronic Resources Unit (ERU).

Watch Using Assets (26 min)

Watch this video to learn about:

  • Introduction to Assets
  • Asset Types
  • Creating and Editing Assets
  • Removing and Deleting Assets

LibGuides Asset Library search fieldsHow to view your asset library

  1. Log in to LibGuides.
  2. Select Content > Assets.
  3. Find and select your name under "Owner".

Watch Level Up LibGuides (30 min)

Watch this video to learn about:

  • Writing for the web
  • Using headers (and proper heading structures)
  • Using color for backgrounds
  • Organizing content with "special containers"
  • Creating content "lists"

Watch Profile Boxes and Profile Pages (39 min)

Watch this video to learn about:

  • Good Profile Pictures (00:48)
  • Example Profile Pages (3:32)
  • Profile Box and Profile Page (8:19)
  • Adding Appointments (17:52)
  • LibCal Profile and Online Appointments (21:45)
  • Custom Page Formatting (27:32)
  • LibAnswers Account (31:30)
  • Virtual Help Profile (35:05)

Adding Images and Media

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Use images that:

  • Have succinct, descriptive alternative text ("alt") text that substitutes for the image and does not begin with text like "a photo of" or "a picture of". Images that are strictly decorative need "null" "alt" text. Specifically, images:
  • Do not contain text important to understanding the image('s content) that is not included in "alt" text or provided elsewhere.
    • Note: For maps, ensure relationships (including spatial) conveyed within the map are programmatically determined or available in text.

RESOURCES: Images (Berkeley Digital Accessibility)
ASSESSMENT TOOLS: WAVE (WebAim)

Watch Best Practices for Images and Gallery Boxes (40 min)

Video titled "Best Practices for Images and Gallery Boxes"This video's chapters include:

  • Image Types and Sizes (5:03)
  • Adding Images and Using Image Manager (12:12)
  • Adjusting Image Properties (14:58)
  • Top Spanning Images (17:33)
  • Alt Text (19:14)
  • Gallery Boxes (24:05)
  • Rotating Book Covers and Images (26:52)
  • Thumbnail Images and Resource Icons (36:54)

Watch Using Free Image Sources (40 min)

This video's chapters include:

  • Understanding and Where to Use Images (00:14)
  • Types of Images and Image Files(4:26)
  • Free Image Resources (12:26)
  • Color Palettes and Image Templates (17:58)
  • Animated GIF (27:58)
  • Adding Image to Springy Tools (29:45)
  • Resource Icons (32:45)
  • Images in Rich Text (37:50)
  • Alt Text (39:57)

Watch Adding Captions to Images in the Rich Text Editor (20 min)

This video's chapters include:

  • Caption examples (1:23)
  • Captions and Alt Text (3:15)
  • Adding Image (7:27)
  • Adding Caption (9:20)
  • Styling Caption (11:30)

""

Use audio (only) media that:

  • Includes transcripts immediately following the audio clip that capture:
    • What speakers (who must be identified) say.
    • Significant audio heard in the recording.
  • Is either:
    • Shorter than 3 seconds OR
    • Allows volume to be controlled independently from the system.

RESOURCES: Audio (Berkeley Digital Accessibility)

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Use video (only) media that:

  • Includes a (long) text OR audio description via a link immediately next to the video that describes content, important information, scenery, actions, expressions, etc. (Audio should be a common audio format used on the internet, like MP3.)
  • Has accurate closed captions for all publicly posted or broadly shared content.
    • TIP: Captions need to identify each speaker and use proper punctuation; Unedited closed captions generated by YouTube, Zoom, and Premiere Pro are insufficient. 
  • Allows users to access all media controls using only keyboard commands.

RESOURCES: Video (Berkeley Digital Accessibility)

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Use audiovisual media that:

  • Includes captions for all pre-recorded audio to describe content, important information, scenery, actions, expressions, etc. Audio needs to be in a readily available media format that has a video player supporting closed captioning, uses synchronized text streams in SMIL 1 or 2, or uses the track element to provide captions.
    • TIP: Unedited closed captions generated by YouTube, Zoom, and Premiere Pro are not sufficient.

  • Provides audio descriptions (via a link immediately next to the AV content) that describes content, important information, scenery, actions, expressions, etc. Audio needs to be a common audio format used on the internet (ex: MP3) and can be either:

    • "Standard", wherein narration is added during existing pauses in the dialogue
    • "Extended", wherein narration is added when the video is paused.

RESOURCES: Video (Berkeley Digital Accessibility)