Best Practices for Subject/Course/General LibGuides at USF

Books may now be added to LibGuides as assets using the "Book from the Catalog" designation in LibGuides. The following instructions will outline this process and ensure uniformity and stability of permalink to these materials in PRIMO.

First, search for the book you want in the catalog (to make things easier, search in the title field and limit to books, as shown in the screenshot below).

 

Once you have the results, look for the one that best meets your needs. In this case, it’s the third of four record on this list (with three results). 

 

 

Here is the detailed view, where you can select the one you want.

 

 

Once you have the information, you can go back to LibGuides to add, or update, the Asset. This is an image of the book record for the title and version we have chosen (in this example).

 

 

We are now shifting to the LibGuides and SpringShare portion of the instructions. These are directly from their site, but integrated with our catalog images for additional guidance (you can see their page at: https://ask.springshare.com/libguides/faq/961)

Book from the Catalog assets make it easy to profile books on your guides, with each book including cover art, bibliographic info, and a description. You can also include a link to the book in your own catalog, as well as the call number. If you provide an ISBN for your book, you can automatically retrieve bibliographic and descriptive data from Bowker and cover art from Syndetics.

 

• Please note that book info and/or cover art may not be available for all ISBNs.
• Book descriptions from Bowker are available only with LibGuides CMS.

Book assets are not connected to your library catalog. LibGuides is not actually connected to your catalog system, so you are not limited to only books in your own collection. This also means, though, that LibGuides does not retrieve any data directly from your catalog (such as the link or call number), so those will always need to be entered manually. Similarly, you cannot import books from your catalog system.

 

Add a new book asset to a guide

To create a brand new Book asset from scratch and add it to your guide:
1.    While editing your guide, click on the  Add / Reorder button at the bottom of the box where you want add this.
2.    Select Book from the Catalog from the dropdown menu.
 

3.    If you have the ISBN for the book you want to add, enter it in the ISBN field and click the Get Book Info button. (Before you start, think about: Physical or e-Book ISBN, Asset or Link)

• If data for this book is available from Bowker, it will automatically be inserted into your book asset.

• Similarly, if cover art is available from Syndetics, it will also be added. (A Syndetics subscription is not required, but you can use your own if your Admin provided your Syndetics Client ID in your LibGuides system settings.)

• Please note: the book description is only available with LibGuides CMS.

 

4.    Enter or edit the book's Title, Author/Editor, Publication Date, Call Number, and URL.

• When a URL is provided, the book's title will serve as a link to that URL.

• You will need to add the URL manually into the field. Make sure to use the permalink URL from the library catalog!

 

5.    If proxy authentication is required to view the book (e.g. a link to an ebook), set the Use Proxy setting to Yes.

• When enabled, LibGuides will automatically prepend your proxy URL to the book's URL.

• Note: our system IS set up to allow the use of this feature, so you can click "Yes" to add proxy 

 

6.    If you would like to add a description about the book, enter it in the Description field.

 

7.    To customize how the description appears on the page, choose your preference from the Description Display options.

• Display beneath item title: this will display the full text of the description on the page, right below the title.

• Hover over item title: this will display the description in a popover when a user hovers over the title.

• Hover over "info" icon: an info () icon will appear next to the title. When a user hovers over it, a popover will appear displaying the description.

• Hide description: if you would like to hide the description, select this option. This will not hide the More Info field.

 

8.    Use the Position option to choose where the new asset should be inserted in the box. (Don't worry: you can always reorder it later.)

 

 

9.    In the Cover Art box, you can view, change, resize, or remove the book's cover art image. Use the ALT Text field to customize the alternative text for the image.

• None: if you select this option, no cover art will display for this book. (This is the default.)
• Syndetics: this will display cover art from Syndetics for the provided ISBN, if available.
• Default - White: this will display a while placeholder image that says "Cover Image Unavailable".
• Default - Blue: this will display a generic blue book cover with a black spine (similar to a physical book dummy).
• Other: this will allow you to enter a URL to your own image. This could be the URL of an image from your catalog, or an image you've uploaded to your LibGuides Image Manager library.

 

10.    Optionally, you can assign resource icons to your book. Click on the Assign Resource Icons panel to select the icons to use.

 

11.    Click the Save button.

 

Assigning subject categories

 

a.    If you would like to assign your asset to a subject category, click on the Subject Associations tab and select the subject(s) to assign. This will allow you to filter your assets by subject in your assets library.

 

Reuse an existing book asset

 

It's always best to reuse existing assets as much as possible. This will help reduce duplication in your assets library.
To reuse an existing Book from the Catalog asset from your assets library (Content > Assets):

1.    While editing your guide, click on the  Add / Reorder button at the bottom of the box where you want add this.
2.    Select Book from the Catalog from the dropdown menu.

3.    In the Add Media / Widget window, click on the Reuse Existing Book tab.

 

4.    In the Search for Book from the Catalog field, start typing in the name of the asset you want to add.

• Remember: this is searching your LibGuides assets library for existing book assets, not your library catalog.
• If the book you want to add has not yet been added to your assets library, like on the Create New Booktab to create it.

 

5.    Select the asset you want to add from the list of results.

 

6.    A summary of the asset info will appear.

•   Not the asset you are looking for? No problem: search again and select a different one.

 

7.    By default, a mapping of the original asset will be added to your guide. If you would rather create a copy of the original asset, select the Copy checkbox.

• Using a mapping is convenient because any changes made to the original asset will automatically be reflected on your guide.
• The drawback of mapping is that you won't be able to edit the asset yourself.
• If you need to customize the reused asset, then select the Copy checkbox. This will create a standalone copy of the asset that you own and can fully customize.

 

8.    Use the Position dropdown to select where in the box the new asset will be inserted. (Don't worry: you can always reorder this later.)

 

9.    Click the Save button.

 

 

Group, edit, and remove books in a guide

 

1.    To manage a book, click on the its Edit () icon.
a.     To add another book to this asset group, select  Add to Group and follow the steps above to create or reuse a book.

• What's an asset group? When you add books next to each other in a box, they will automatically form a group.
• Books in a group can be sorted by title, author or call number; plus, when reordering content, you can move the entire group at once instead of each book individually.
  
  
  

b.    To customize the book, select  Edit.

• If this is a mapped asset, please note that this will only apply to this single mapping of the link. It will not affect the original link's description.

 

c.    To remove the book from your guide, select  Remove.

• This will only remove the book from your guide. It will not delete the book from your assets library (Content > Assets) and can still be reused.

 

Editing books in your assets library

 

The assets library is where all reusable assets are stored in your LibGuides system. From here, you can centrally manage your assets, as well as create new ones.

• Admin users can edit any asset in the system.
• Regular users with the Manage Assets permission (CMS only) can also edit any asset.
• All other Regular and Editor users can only edit the assets they own.

To edit your book assets:
1.    Go to Content > Assets.
 

 

2.    Use the filters at the top of the page to filter the assets library (such as by type or owner).

 

3.    To edit an asset, click on its Edit () icon in the Actions column.

• Changes made to the asset will be reflected everywhere the asset is being used.