Friday 27 April 2012

Wily Widgets

Breaking through the wall with widgets

In many schools IT departments control the software available and the tools that users may add to browsers. An excellent way to point to students to resources that can often otherwise be added as toolbar extras, is to provide them with a range of widgets. Widgets expose both students and staff to tools they may not regularly use, or indeed they be unaware of their existence.

Two categories of widgets that I find particularly useful are Search and Dictionary widgets. Many of these come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. Once you have selected the look you want, simply copy the code and paste into your website.

Database widgets are prolific and depending on which ones your school subscribes to, can also be easily adapted for your needs.

Search

The newest widget in the pack is an Instagrok widget.


Many of these other favourite search tools are also embedded liberally throughout our LibGuides site.

Sweet Search is one of the most useful widgets directing users to sites that are all suitable for students. The widgets are available in a variety of sizes along with the Sweet Search4Me widget suitable for early learners.



The text and colours on the Duck Duck Go search box can be edited to suit your preferences.
DuckDuckGo logo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that protects privacy and has a wide range of features.

Google Books and Google Scholar search boxes focus attention on specific search functions. By the Terms of Service, the HTML code cannot be altered in these search boxes, but if you use LibGuides you are able to set a default search term in the boxes so that students see the most appropriate search term for the context. An example of such a default search can be seen on our Pyschology guide.

Google Books

Google Scholar


Of course no reference to search boxes would be complete without Wolfram Alpha who provide a wonderful range of customised widgets in addition to basic search boxes.



Blekko also has a range of useful tools including this embeddable searchbox.


Trove searches Australian content

Dictionaries

Dictionary widgets are very useful for students working in situations where there are no inbuilt define functions.

This widget provides access to Oxford Dictionaries


If you have a preference for Cambridge there is a Google widget or a HTML version of this widget.


Merriam-Webster have a variety of 13 different search boxes for their dictionaries and thesauri such as the Learner's Dictionary below, suitable for younger students.


These are just a few of the many widgets available that can assist your users. Do you have favourite search and dictionary widgets that I have missed?

2 comments:

  1. Brilliant Carmel. I think I'll have to 'borrow' this idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Borrow away! I'm sure I picked up the idea from someone else along the way.

      Delete

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