Free libraries on demand - Australia

Tip of the Day - 2

This is the second in a series of tips for the staff at school but you will find your local libraries provide similar services. Pop in today and ask your librarian.

• Get your free Library card from the State Library of NSW to access all their databases from home
• The National Library of Australia also provides this service.  Register for your free card here

The National Library of Australia eResources

The state libraries in each Australian jurisdiction have similar arrangements. If you are a resident of another state find the details here.
State Library of Victoria
State Library of South Australia
State Library of Western Australia
State Library of Tasmania
State Library of Queensland
Northern Territory Library

Passing on learning

In a few weeks I will be retiring from paid work in school and moving to a quieter life. In a concentrated effort to share some things I've learnt from a variety of places over the years, I'm sending a Tip of the Day to staff at school via email, as it is still the preferred method of communication within many schools. I'll credit ideas where I can find them, but some lessons have been absorbed from many sites, apologies in advance to those not cited.
Here's today's offering.

Passwords

If you are not using a random password generator here’s a quick tip for generating your own unique password.

1. Take a phrase unique to you e.g. I’ve worked at Trinity Grammar School for eleven years!
2. Take first letter of each word, turn one word into numbers, add some capitals and that becomes - IwaTGSf11y!
3. Now use that with first and last letters of site you are logging in to

Examples:

for Google - IwaTGSf11y!ge OR gIwaTGSf11y!e OR geIwaTGSf11y!
Repeat one of those patterns: for Facebook - IwaTGSf11y!fk for Twitter - IwaTGSf11y!tr

Easily remembered by you, change the pattern and/or phrase every 6 months – Stay safe online!
Within minutes of sending the email I'd had half a dozen positive acknowledgements. Lesson of the day for me, remember to keep sharing, what you think is obvious may be new information for others.

Useful sites about passwords

Common Craft Secure passwords
The Mozilla Channel How to choose strong passwords
Keepass KeePass Password Safe

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 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.

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.

search

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

Free online English dictionary from Oxford

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?