SpringyNews: Acts of Green

In honor of Earth Day, this edition of Springy Tips & Tricks focuses on ways you can reduce, reuse, and recycle using your Springy Tools. These tips are guaranteed to minimize waste, encourage reusability, and promote efficiency. 

Going Green has never been more fun!

1. Recycle LibGuides: Using the Community (LG1 & LG2)

We all know by now that the LibGuides community site is a great place for getting inspired, curating knowledge, and checking out what your fellow librarians around the world are building. 

It's also a great place to find and reuse LibGuides - talk about going green! So next time you're thinking about building a new LibGuide, put on your eco-friendly, sustainably-sourced hat and check out the community site first. Below are step-by-step instructions for reusing guides for folks using LibGuides v1 and LibGuides v2. 

Before we get started:

• You must ask permission before reusing any guides from the community site. Respect intellectual property and shoot them an email asking permission first.
• You cannot reuse guides across versions of LibGuides. So v1 guides can only be copied/reused in v1 systems, and v2 guides can only be reused in v2 systems.

LibGuides v1

Search Guides:

• Bookmark: http://community.libguides.com
• Search guides by title, keyword/topic, or author
• Filter by Library Type 

Search LibGuides Systems:

• Search LibGuides systems by Type, Location, or Version
• Pro-tip: Looking for a little LibGuides v2 sites inspiration? Limit the 'All Products' drop-down to LibGuides v2

LibGuides v2

Searching LibGuides is a wee bit different in v2; here's what to do:

• Login to your LibGuides v2 system
• Select Create Guide
• Select 'Copy content/layout from an existing guide'
• Select Community Guides
• You can:
  • Search for a guide by title or 
  • Paste in the URL of a v2 LibGuide

2. Reduce your Paper Footprint with LibCal (LC1 & LC2)

You're doing your best to reduce paper usage in your library: recycling junk paper into reusable notepads. Prominently displaying recycle bins near printers. Even buying recycled paper. But did you know that just by using LibCal for your room bookings, you'll reduce your paper footprint even more?

With LibCal Room Bookings, you can eliminate:

• Sign-up sheets at the desk:
  • - Patrons can register and sign-up for rooms online
• Printed reservation sheets:
  • - Patrons can see when a room is open and when it's booked. And with nicknames enabled, they can even see that the 'English Study Group' has the room reserved next Wednesday @1pm. 
• Log books of older bookings:
  • - Ditch those spiral binders and review all previous bookings, with notes, with Room Bookings Explorer

Are you an instruction librarian?

Use LibCal's Room Bookings to set-up online bookings for your instruction classroom. Use a "mediated" group for more control:

Faculty can:

• See when the room is available for an instruction session
• Submit a request for a booking based upon their preferred availability
  • - With the customizable request form, they can also outline other dates/times that are preferable. 

You can:

• Approve/Deny requests on a case-by-case basis
• Reschedule a request to another date based upon your availability
• Review the history of all requests, even by user!

3. Sharing is Caring - Using Shared Images (LG2, LC2, LA2)

Earth Day is a national day of celebration, where everyone gets together to do their part for the environment. As a team, as a society, as a people - working together towards an end goal. Well, that spirit is alive and well inside of all of our v2 tools with our Shared Images Library. Nothing shouts 'green' more than sharing.

4. Get Efficient with LibAnswers SMS (LAv1 & LAv2)

Which tool can help you reduce your paper usage and promote your SMS service at the same time? Why, the LibAnswers 'Send an SMS' feature. Let's check it out!

Common Scenario @ Your Library:

A patron approaches the desk and asks for a call number, or information on the library's hours, or the link to a good MLA citation tool. Basically, a bit of info they need. 

You reach for your bin of scrap paper, jot down the information, and hand it over. The patron uses it for a few minutes, drops it in a trash bin, and by the end of the week - it's in a landfill.

Not only is this not very green, it also doesn't promote your library services in their best light. By the time that scrap paper gets to the landfill, that information is already in the users' cerebral trash can too. 

Repeat this scenario hundreds of times in a typical week and you're looking at some significant waste in your landfill and a loss of advertising opportunities to boot!

'Greener' Scenario using LibAnswers SMS:

A patron approaches the desk and asks for that bit of information.

Instead of reaching for that scrap paper, ask them for their cell phone number. You're going to text it to them instead!

Not only is this much greener but it promotes your Library's SMS service at the same time. Add in language encouraging the patron to save your SMS number to their address book. 

So, grab that candy bar and give yourself a treat. You're helping to save the environment and promote your SMS service in one green swoop. 

5. Save Time with LibGuides Search & Replace (LG2 - Admin Only Feature)

Going Green isn't just about saving the environment (okay, it mostly is, but can't ya just cut us some slack here on the analogy?  ;) but also about saving yourself time and energy. 'Being Green', at it's core, is all about being thrifty and saving. Saving what, pray tell? Well, really - anything. But for the purposes of this example, we're talking about saving time for yourself and others!

Where is it:

• Login to your LibGuides v2 
• Navigate to Tools > Search & Replace

How do the 'Search Types' work?

• Guide:
  • - Name = Guide Title
  • - Text/Description = Guide Descriptions
  • - URL = Redirect URL. Friendly URLs are search & replaceable under Admin > Subjects, Tags, & URLs
• Guide Page:
  • - Name = Page Title
  • - Text/Description = Page Description
  •  - URL = Page Redirect URL. Friendly URLs are search & replaceable under Admin > Subjects, Tags, & URLs
• Content Box:
  • - Name = 
    • -- Gallery Box Type Title
    • -- Tabbed Box Type Title - not tab titles within box
    • -- Standard Box Type Title
    • -- Profile Box Type Not Included - Update in your LibApps Profile
  • - Text/Description = N/A
  • - URL = N/A
• Content Item:
  • ​- Name = Link titles, Book titles, Docs & file titles, RSS feed titles, etc.)
  • - Text/Description = Rich-Text Asset, More Info in Links assets, Book assets, Docs & File assets, etc.)
  • - URL = Book asset URLs, Link asset URLs, RSS asset URLs, etc.)

What's Not Included?

Database assets and friendly URLs are not included in Search & Replace since those are maintained in a dedicated area.

Search & Replace Tips

1. 1. Unsure of what the results are going to be? Try clicking the Search button first (the button on the left) to get an idea of what you're updating, before you replace. 
2. 2. Unless your certain about the exact term, use 'Contains' instead of 'Exact' to broaden the search.
3. 3. Switch the default to case insensitive to cover all possibilities