In this Issue:
Crocs might have been in fashion 10 years ago, but now only Mario Batali can pull them off.
Your LibGuides site might have been around for the last 10 years, too, but it doesn't have to look like it! After all, you don't want your guides getting caught wearing last decade's fashion, right?
In this edition of LibGuides Tips & Tricks, we'll explore ways you can refresh your guides with a modern, minimalist design, as well as how to make your guides stand out in the age of the #hashtag.
A big part of 2017's minimalist web design is white space, or negative space.
Negative space is just as important as the space where your content resides.
A great way to embrace white space is to make use of floating boxes.
Floating boxes remove your box title and border from the public interface, giving you more white space around your content. The end result is a fresh composition that's easy on the eyes.
On the admin-side, you'll still see the box title and borders - but the 'life-buoy' icon let's you know that floating is enabled.
Marie Kondo's "Japanese Art to Decluttering Your Life" might have been aimed at home life, but its principles can be applied to your LibGuides.
Take advantage of LibGuides v2's Tabbed Boxes as a way to declutter and simplify your LibGuide.
Minimalism is not subtraction for the sake of subtraction. Minimalism is subtraction for the sake of focus.
Does your LibGuide have a lot of pages/subpages? Could that information be condensed into one tabbed box?
Drury College did just that when they moved from LibGuides v1 to v2. They consolidated several boxes across multiple pages into one tabbed box.
Drury College LibGuides v1
Drury College LibGuides v2
If you have several similar boxes on a page, group them together into one tabbed box. This helps to reduce scrolling and makes it more user-friendly.
You can't know where you're going until you know where you've been. If you have a long-standing LibGuide, a great way to see how it's changed, and will change, over time is by creating an archive... of sorts.
Using Guide HTML backups, you can create a snapshot of your guide over time. Create a new HTML Backup every time you make significant changes.
New HTML Backups in LibGuides v2 don't overwrite the previous backup.
Navigate to Tools > Data Exports > Guide HTML Tab and click "Display all available backups" to view all backups. Then, filter by Guide ID to sort them all together.
Pick the version you want to check out and click the icon.
Note: This is not a versioning history.
It downloads a backup file to your computer of what that guide contained at the date/time of backup.
Deleted Guides are automatically backed up in your HTML Backup Area! If you've accidentally deleted a guide, you can download a backup to rebuild it.
Since its inception in 2006, Twitter has revolutionized social media. It took the concept of 140-character microblog posts to the next level with it's creation of the #hashtag. Now, we see #hashtags being used across all social platforms from Facebook, to Instagram, to Snapchat.
Hashtags are a type of metadata label used on social networks to make it easier for users to search for social media posts with a specific theme or content.
Here are some examples: #yolo #brexit #funnycat
But, what you might not know is that including #hashtags in your LibGuides description, LibGuides Blog Post titles, and other areas could affect your SEO.
Google has even begun incorporating hashtags into search results in a unique way. Now, searching for a hashtag on Google will not only give you a list of search results, but will also include a live scrolling feed of Google+ posts containing that hashtag and links to other hashtag feeds on other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.
-- Red Crow Marketing, How Do #Hashtags Affect My #SEO?
Bottom-line, incorporating #hashtags in your LibGuide descriptions, Blog Post titles, and your Social Media posts will mean more opportunities to feature your content on Google.
Pardon our Olivia Newton John pun, but we couldn't help ourselves.
Visuals are a huge part of 2017. We live in the age of Instagram and Snapchat - where images speak volumes.
A great way to jazz up your LibGuides, especially if you're using side-nav layout, is by adding Font-Awesome Icons to your Page Titles.