Have you tried using Igoogle Gadgets at your library? Honestly the thought every even occurred to me until I saw a notice that ACRL is hosting a webinar on how to do them. Then I did some searching and found this presentation on how to create them.
iGoogle Gadgets @ Your Library
View more presentations from Edward Metz.
So what do you think? Have you created IGoogle Gadgets for your library or do you use the already existing ones?
As a matter of fact I have created an iGoogle gadget for my library.
When it comes to widgets and gadgets, it’s best to stick to one function and make it attractive and simple. This applies to desktop widgets just as much as iGoogle/Netvibes gadgets. Apple’s Dashboard Widget Design Guidelines give great general advice on this topic. Personal homepage sites generally let users theme their own pages, so it’s best to keep the gadget designs plainer than standalone desktop widgets.
For the CPL gadget, which is among a suite of search-related tools available to our patrons, the main advantage is autofill – many libraries have a search box and that’s great and functional, but autofill makes the whole thing actionable from their iGoogle/Netvibes page.
The gadget should be functional while minimized as well. This simply means picking the most-useful link for the heading. Sometimes that’s the library’s home page, but perhaps a link directly to the catalog would be more useful for a catalog search gadget.
Hope this helps.
wow, thanks for such a detailed comment. It sure does.
[...] IGoogle Gadgets at Social Networking in Libraries [...]
Hi, Anna,
I’m one of the presenters for the ACRL iGoogle webinar. If you are interested, I’ll gladly send you the presentation and code for getting started. Thanks for the mention here.
Best,
jason
[...] Follow this link: IGoogle Gadgets | AnnaLaura Brown [...]