A New Look

Well it has been some time since I made a post of my own. I do not know if I have recovered from my bout of "Facebook fatigue," but here it is, the first post under a new look. The new look is employing Blogger's new template designer. I have to admit that it is significantly better than the old ones, which were not bad, but getting kind of stale. I have plans to employ blogger for a certain community group, so stay tuned. Cheers.

MHC Library Blog Traffic: A Real Head Scratcher

Yes, I am still here. I have been very engaged in a number of library projects lately. One that I have taken great pride in is our revised APA guides. It seems that the guides have struck a chord for a great many people, but not from a group that I would have expected.

Interestingly enough (to me), there seems to be stronger interest from our American friends in the guides. The APA guides have proven to be a great draw to the MHC Library Services blog. The pie chart that accompanies this entry is a snapshot of Web traffic to the library blog. American interest can swing between 40 and 60 percent, but it almost always matches or exceeds interest from within the college. This trend started the day I posted information on our updated APA guides. To me, it is both disappointing (that our own college population seems less interested in our product) and gratifying (that we have reached a broader international audience) at the same time.

Blog & OPAC Modifications

It is the start of the work week and it is off to a mad rush. I made a couple modifications to my personal blog (the one you are reading) and the Medicine Hat College Library Service Blog. A weather widget, courtesy of Environment Canada, was added to each. If you want to build a WeatherLink for your website, click here [sorry, Canada only].

To make OPAC entries clearer in the browse-results lists, the results' numbers were aligned right, highlighted in a light green with a dark green right-hand border. You can view a sample by clicking here. I was hoping to create a different effect, but the CSS does not allow for it. My hope is that this new highlight will make it easier for patrons to see where an entry begins and ends. A couple of other minor changes were made, but they are minutia and not worth discussing.

A couple of minor fires were put out along the way - information desk questions (two if you can believe it - one of which was a complex question about wireless networking in the college) and we discovered how to edit PDFs with Adobe Acrobat Standard and Professional.

And so the day continues...

General Update - MHCLS Blog and My Work

I made a few changes to the Medicine Hat College Library Services Blog. The changes include:

• LINKS
  They are now underscored for easier visibility, however, the underscore will disappear when rolled-over. This adds, in my mind, a more animated/interactive approach to linking.
  
  
• BANNER
  I created a custom banner that employs the college's crest/logo. This replaces the default text banner that is provided by Blogger.
  
  
• BACKGROUND
  The background color has been changed to a dark sage green color. Previously it was pure white and looked too dull/stark.

I will working on uploading MARC records to Bowker's Book Analysis System over the next day or so, and followed by customization of forms for the Relais ILL service. I will deliver a mini report of the AAQ Coordinators Meeting next week.