Author: NEKLS

Categories
Library News

Highlights of WordPress 3.0

Feel free to update your Web site to 3.0.1 –

Three dot oh dot one
Bug fixes to make you smile
Update your WordPress

For a great tour (with more information than you’ll need), watch this short video.  If you like jazz, you may want to watch just to hear Thelonius Monk.
https://videopress.com/v/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.21

Other interesting features:

  • Look for the Blue Buttons – they direct you to Save and Publish and Update
  • The Media Library and new Edit Image functions built into WordPress allow you to bring in stock photos, crop, and resize from within your site.
  • Use the Categories and Link Categories to your advantage when deciding on navigation within your site.
  • Searching for and installing a new theme is a snap – video forthcoming on the project site.
  • Understanding that when you first select a theme, certain widgets appear by default, even though the Sidebar 1 or Sidebar 2 tabs on the Widgets page look empty. Once you add a widget to any of the sidebars, all of the defaults will disappear.
  • WordPress treats Links with high regard – they’re special and good and can be categorized and those categorized links can be put into a sidebar (all alone or with all other link categories).
  • Messing with CSS is fun, if you know how to do it…but frustrating if you don’t. I’m of the camp – find a theme you like as-is or one that has cool Theme Options.
  • Last – the WordPress CODEX is great, so use it.
Categories
Tutorial

Web Search Engines

After you have spent time creating, updating, and improving your Library Web site to “Full on Fabulous,” maybe you want people to find and use it…

As a test, go to Google or Bing or Your Favorite Search Engine and look for your site.  Look for it as “Anytown Public Library” and “Anytown Library” and “Anytown Library Kansas” and any other combination of terms that a library seeker may use.  What do you find?  Are there other Anytown Public Library’s out there, say in another state, competing with your site?  Does your site appear on your City’s site, or some other referring site?

The easiest way to improve your results in Google and Yahoo! search engines is to register.  If you have changed or purchased a domain name for your site, you may want to register the new name.  Each search engine has an online form for submitting your Web site to their index:

Google:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Yahoo:
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Also, if you found in your initial testing that there is community or City site that refers to your site, make sure it is up-to-date.  Call, email, whatever it takes – your library Web site is an Amazing tool for promoting the library and you want to make sure people have the right address.

As librarians, we catalog and classify things.  How do we catalog and classify our Web site?  With metadata!  Depending on the WordPress Theme you use for your site, you may not have an easy way to add your own site description and keywords.  Luckily, there’s a plugin for that!

You can do a search for “metadata” from the Plugins section of your site’s dashboard or from the WordPress site.  That’s how I found and installed this:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/add-meta-tags/.  Using this plugin, I added a site description and keywords to a KLOW site.

Out of curiosity, I did a simple search for ‘improve search engine results’ and came up with a few dated, but easy-to-read articles on the subject that might be of interest to you:

Again, out of further curiosity, I did a search for “library web site promotion” and found this interesting web-based, self-paced module on Library Marketing from the Ohio Library Council: Introduction to Marketing the Library :: Libraries on the Web Section

Let us know if you have found any interesting or unique ways to promote your library Web site!

Categories
Library News

Kansas KLOW Sites

abilene abilene.mykansaslibrary.org
altamont altamont.mykansaslibrary.org
arma arma.mykansaslibrary.org
ashland ashland.mykansaslibrary.org
atchison www.atchisonlibrary.org
augusta augusta.mykansaslibrary.org
basehor www.basehorlibrary.org
beattie beattie.mykansaslibrary.org
bern bern.mykansaslibrary.org
bluemound bluemound.mykansaslibrary.org
bluerapids bluerapids.mykansaslibrary.org
bonnersprings www.bonnerlibrary.org
bronson bronson.mykansaslibrary.org
bucklin www.bucklinpubliclibrary.org
burlingame burlingame.mykansaslibrary.org
burnley burnley.mykansaslibrary.org
caldwell caldwell.mykansaslibrary.org
caney caney.mykansaslibrary.org
carbondale www.carbondalecitylibrary.org
cedarvale cedarvale.mykansaslibrary.org
centralia centralia.mykansaslibrary.org
council grove cgpl.mykansaslibrary.org
cimarron cimarron.mykansaslibrary.org
claycenter claycenter.mykansaslibrary.org
coffeycounty www.cclibraryks.org
coldwater-wilmore coldwater-wilmore.mykansaslibrary.org
colonycity colonycity.mykansaslibrary.org
columbus columbus.mykansaslibrary.org
conwaysprings conwaysprings.mykansaslibrary.org
corning corning.mykansaslibrary.org
edna edna.mykansaslibrary.org
effingham www.effinghamlibrary.net
enterprise enterprise.mykansaslibrary.org
eriecity eriecity.mykansaslibrary.org
eudora www.eudorapubliclibrary.org
eureka eureka.mykansaslibrary.org
fallriver fallriver.mykansaslibrary.org
fortscott fortscott.mykansaslibrary.org
fowler fowler.mykansaslibrary.org
frankfort frankfort.mykansaslibrary.org
fredonia fredonia.mykansaslibrary.org
gardencity gardencity.mykansaslibrary.org
garnett garnett.mykansaslibrary.org
gcpl www.grantcolib.info
goodland goodland.mykansaslibrary.org
grainfield grainfield.mykansaslibrary.org
greeley www.greeleycolibrary.info
grenola grenola.mykansaslibrary.org
hamiltoncity hamiltoncity.mykansaslibrary.org
hanover hanover.mykansaslibrary.org
hartford hartford.mykansaslibrary.org
hepler hepler.mykansaslibrary.org
herington herington.mykansaslibrary.org
hiawatha www.hiawathalibrary.org
hillsboro hillsboro.mykansaslibrary.org
holton holton.mykansaslibrary.org
hope hope.mykansaslibrary.org
horton www.hortonlibrary.org
humboldt humboldt.mykansaslibrary.org
inman inman.mykansaslibrary.org
iola iola.mykansaslibrary.org
johnston johnston.mykansaslibrary.org
kearny kearny.mykansaslibrary.org
lanecounty www.lanecolibrary.info
linwood www.linwoodlibrary.org
longton longton.mykansaslibrary.org
lyndon www.lyndonlibrary.org
marion marion.mykansaslibrary.org
marysville marysville.mykansaslibrary.org
mclouth mclouth.mykansaslibrary.org
meade meade.mykansaslibrary.org
meriden meriden.mykansaslibrary.org
montezuma montezuma.mykansaslibrary.org
moran moran.mykansaslibrary.org
moundridge moundridge.mykansaslibrary.org
nckls nckls.mykansaslibrary.org
nesscity www.nesscitylibrary.org
norton www.nortonpubliclibrary.org
nortonville www.nortonvillelibrary.org
nwkls nwkls.mykansaslibrary.org
osagecity www.osagecitylibrary.org
osawatomie www.osawatomie.org
oskaloosa www.oskielibrary.org
oswego oswego.mykansaslibrary.org
overbrook overbrook.mykansaslibrary.org
parsons parsons.mykansaslibrary.org
peabody peabody.mykansaslibrary.org
plains www.plainslibrary.info
pleasanton pleasanton.mykansaslibrary.org
pomona pomona.mykansaslibrary.org
prescott prescott.mykansaslibrary.org
protection www.protectionlibrary.com
rankin rankin.mykansaslibrary.org
ransom ransom.mykansaslibrary.org
richmond richmond.mykansaslibrary.org
rolla www.rollalibrary.org
sabetha www.sabethalibrary.org
savonburg savonburg.mykansaslibrary.org
sckls sckls.mykansaslibrary.org
scottcounty scottcounty.mykansaslibrary.org
sedan sedan.mykansaslibrary.org
seneca www.senecafreelibrary.org
spearville spearville.mykansaslibrary.org
stantoncounty stantoncounty.mykansaslibrary.org
stevenscounty stevenscounty.mykansaslibrary.org
stpaul stpaul.mykansaslibrary.org
swiftnet swiftnet.mykansaslibrary.org
swkls swkls.mykansaslibrary.org
swklskansasreads swklskansasreads.mykansaslibrary.org
sylvia sylvia.mykansaslibrary.org
thayer friday thayerfriday.mykansaslibrary.org
tonganoxie www.tonganoxielibrary.org
utica utica.mykansaslibrary.org
valleyfalls valleyfalls.mykansaslibrary.org
vermillion vermillion.mykansaslibrary.org
wamego www.wamegopubliclibrary.com
washington washington.mykansaslibrary.org
waterville waterville.mykansaslibrary.org
weir weir.mykansaslibrary.org
wellsville www.wellsvillelibrary.org
wetmore www.wetmorepubliclibrary.org
williamsburg www.williamsburgcommunitylibrary.org
winchester www.winchesterlibrary.org
Categories
Tutorial

Getting Started with KLOW

I am working on a series of Introductory screencast videos for folks new to KLOW and WordPress.  This post will be updated as new videos are ready for publication.  If you have questions or have feedback, please share in the comments!  Think of me as the Old Spice Guy – ask for a topic to be covered, and I will deliver a screencast video!

Outline for covering WordPress Basics for new libraries:

  • First Steps – Update password and information for “librarian” user | Managing additional users | Updating default Settings for the site
  • Basic Content – Overviews of Categories, link categories, tags, posts and pages
  • Customizing the Site – Overview of themes | Finding and installing new themes | Widgets and Sidebars
  • All about Images – Overview of Media Library | Web image tips and tricks | Creative Commons | Inserting images | Themes using ‘featured images’
  • Intermediate WordPress – Upgrading | Overview of plugins | Finding and installing plugins | Creative posts and pages using the Kitchen Sink, ordered and unordered lists, blockquotes, indents, justification | Embedding videos and slideshows from 3rd party sites (Flickr, Slideshare, etc.)
  • Web site Policies – Do you archive or delete old posts? Do you allow online registration? Do you have a photo release form? Do you post Board minutes and agendas? Do you post all of your policies on the site? Who is allowed to add, edit and delete content?

Quick and Dirty Videos (made with Jing! or Screencast-o-matic):

This just in from Liz’s blog reader: 10 WordPress Tutorial Sites to Brush Up Your Blogging Skills

Useful Instructions from the WordPress Codex:

Categories
Content Ideas Library News Tutorial

Add a Slideshow

Corning City Library has a really great photo slideshow in their sidebar that they created using an online service called Slide (they used another online product a few years ago, but like this one better.)

To create this, you can sign up for a free account or just start arranging a slideshow.  You can pull photos from your computer, a Flickr account, photobucket, FaceBook or elsewhere.  There are easy-to-follow instructions on the screen for customizing and re-sizing your slideshow, and then ‘saving’ the show.

Along with ‘saving’ your work, you are given options for where and how to share your slideshow.  If you want the slideshow to appear in a sidebar of your site, I recommend skipping down to the ‘Can’t find what you’re looking for’ link to get the HTML embed code you will need to put into a text widget.  Pretty easy and neat looking.

Here’s an updated example featuring my attempt at a garden.  I sized this at 150 pixels wide to fit in a sidebar, you can chose a larger size if you want this to appear in a Post or on a Page of your site: