Tag: Flickr

Categories
Content Ideas Tutorial

Adding a Flickr Slideshow

Maybe you saw the lovely slideshow at the Kansas Library Express site?  Heather Braum and Carolyn Little figured out how to do that last night in the NEKLS training lab.

How they did it:

  1. Went to the Kansas Library Express Flickr account
  2. From the Photostream, they opened up certain pictures and clicked “Actions” and “Add To Set” and created a new Set called ‘July 2010 Courier Photos’
    (OK, I don’t know immediately how to get into the nekls Flickr account, so I’m going to use screenshots from my personal account – the buttons and links are all located in the same places.)
  3. From the Photostream, they opened that Set by clicking on “Sets” and then selected “July 2010 Courier Photos”
  4. Now, up in the right corner in gray text is a link called “Slideshow” – they clicked that!
  5. This opened the slideshow in their Web browser.  To share that in a post on a WordPress blog, they clicked “Share“
  6. For a KLOW site, they needed to embed the HTML code into a Post using the HTML editor, so they selected “Copy to Clipboard” under the ‘Grab the embed HTML’ and took this information back to the Kansas Library Express site and pasted it into the empty post!
    (This illustration shows the difference between a wordpress.com site and a wordpress.org, or KLOW, site).

OK, so I’m confident in your ability to open a new post, select the HTML tab to open the HTML editor and ‘ctrl+v’ (paste) in that code that is on your computer clipboard.

I look forward to seeing more embedded Flickr slideshows!
-Sharon

Categories
Library News

I’ve lost my password what do I do?!

This happens. Here’s how to fix it.

Pre-emptively (as in, before you lose your password):

Make sure that your librarian account has an email address associated with it.

    • Log in
    • Click Users
    • Click Librarian
    • Make sure that your email address is entered in under Contact information.
    • If you added or changed the email address, click “Update User”

Oh no! I’ve lost my password!

  • On the login screen, click “Lost Your Password?”
  • Type in your username (usually librarian) or the email address associated with your account.
  • Click “Get new password”
  • Check your email for the confirmation link
  • Click the link from your email.
  • Check your mail for your new password
  • Go back to the login screen and use the new password to log in.

Now, we want to change the password to something we know and can remember:

  • Log in using the new password
  • Click Users
  • Click your user, usually librarian
  • Scroll down until you see the two “New Password” fields
  • Type in your new password in each box
  • Click “Update User”
Categories
Tutorial

Add a search box to the State Library of Kansas Databases

Ever wanted to make a page devoted to resources external to your library? Resources such as the State Library of Kansas sponsored databases?

Oh you have, have you? Well funny you should ask… here’s how you do it!

  1. Log into the administration side of your site.
  2. Click Presentation
  3. Click Widgets
  4. Find an empty Text widget
    • If you don’t have a blank one, scroll down and increase the number of text widgets that are displaying, and click Save. Then use one of the new ones you’ll see in your “Available Widgets” box.
  5. Drag it up to one of your sidebars.
  6. Click the “Configure” box on the right end of the text widget you dragged up. A pop up will appear with a blank white area.
  7. Copy the following text and paste it into the box: 
    <form method="post" action="http://ksuc-agent.auto-graphics.com/homepages/customerwide/ValidateGlobalIP.asp?cuid=ksuc&amp;lid=kw9&amp;stfftype=Z&amp;defaultlang=english&amp;qmisc=&amp;s=ESS&amp;mode=S">&nbsp;<input name="term" type="text" size="18" />
<p></p>
<label>&nbsp;&nbsp;<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Go!" /></label>
  8. Click the X in the upper right corner.
  9. Click Save Changes (VERY IMPORTANT)

You will now have a SLK search box on your sidebar. Those of you a little more advanced with your HTML could paste this into a page and increase the size of the search bar area. The sky’s the limit!

Categories
Events

Making Your Website Pop!

Jane Purcell, senior vice president of Advanced Access, a Web design and hosting firm in Anaheim Hills, California, says “I equate (having a good website) to a car. If you don’t put gas in it and get regular oil changes, it won’t perform for you. The same goes for the Web, where sites that aren’t useful or current do little good for their owners.”

That said, how do you make your site “pop?”

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Use strong headlines – Write engaging headlines that speak to the essential needs of your patrons, such as “Got Kids? Need a peaceful moment? Come to storytime!”
  2. Keep it up to date – there’s no point for your patrons to come to your website if there’s nothing new for them to look at. Keeping it updated at least every couple of weeks keeps your site fresh and interesting for patrons.
  3. Keep your information accurate – There’s nothing more frustrating than out of date content or bad links. Check your content every now and then, your patrons will thank you.
  4. Write patron centered copy – It’s their library, let them know that! Use you and your, instead of I and we.
  5. Write in an inverted-pyramid style – list what essential services your library provides first (the basics), and keep the details at the bottom. They’ll read down to the nitty gritty if they are really interested.
  6. Use small, context sensitive pictures in your posts – Not every post needs a photo or a graphic, but it can make your site look and feel a lot more fun. KLOW makes this easy as you can upload a photo to place on any post. You don’t have to use only photos, you can use royalty-free clip art as well (see the post below) to make a point or draw attention to a particular post.

I’m sure you have many ideas on what makes websites pop… what are your ideas?

Picking WordPress Themes for KLOW

Finding the right visual look for your website can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are many sites that host WordPress themes that are compatible with our system here. A few key words to look for when you are looking at a theme:

  • Widget ready – so you can drag and drop your widgets!
  • WordPress 2.0+ compatible (we’re using WordPress 2.0/2.1)
  • Available in a .zip file
  • Look for themes that aren’t too thematic or artistic. Sometimes it’s quite challenging to modify a theme to your specifications when it is very graphic intensive.
  • Stick to familiar layouts, 2, 3 and 4 column layouts all seem to work very well with not too much fuss.

Some sites to consider when looking at themess:

http://widgets.wordpress.com – features themes that are widget ready

http://www.wpdesigner.com – he tries to do a theme a day, and some are very good.

http://themes.wordpress.net – lets you search on particular criteria, such as color, widget ready, prominent colors, etc.

Have Fun!