One more great guide to share - a literary journal from a k12 in Australia:


http://home2.scotch.wa.edu.au/theraven_winter2014

For you LG admins out there - it's a series of RT content types that's
governed by an external stylesheet. They have LibGuides CMS, and this
private guide is in its own group.

*back to lurking*

On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 2:00 PM, Cindi Blyberg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Jesse reminds me that I meant to point out that there is a "Paste from
> Word" button in the RTE that will strip out all that microsoft nonsense.
> Not quite what you were asking for (suppressing tags from the RTE--I passed
> that suggestion on to the devs) but it's what we refer people to who break
> their formatting accidentally with a massive paste. There's also a "Paste
> as Plain Text" button that has a similar effect.
>
> On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:32 PM, Jesse Martinez <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> I can commiserate!
>>
>> The tactic we've used at our university was to use the data migration from
>> LGv1 to LGv2 as a means to convene guide authors and rethink
>> * the future overall layout of our guides (new side menu has been our
>> design choice but complicates preexisting three- and four-column layouts);
>> * their intended use (pastiche of related but independent boxes on the
>> guide or something with a simple flow/concise content -- it's a
>> philosophical discussion, for sure);
>> * breakdown of content (when it is appropriate to have long detailed pages
>> or break down into sub-pages, which have their own issues...);
>> * the strict use of accessibility policies (must set up strict policies
>> about funky colors & fonts, minimize use HTML tables, content column
>> layout
>> w.r.t. responsive design, etc.).
>>
>> I feel our internal conversations and meetings about rethinking LibGuides
>> v2 with our staff have gone over well, and reiterating appropriate "best
>> practices" or suggestions whenever I field a LibGuides question have
>> birthed some improvements in guide construction. It's an ongoing battle,
>> of
>> course!
>>
>> There are some heavy-handed tactics in place here too. For instance we've
>> hidden the Fonts button in the guide editor using CSS.
>>
>> span#cke_12 {display:none;}
>>
>> This doesn't stop custom html or copy/pasting Word content (ugh) from
>> getting through, but it does allows us to say, "nope, we're not supporting
>> Comic Sans!"
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 12:56 PM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> > I lol'ed several times reading your message. I feel the pain. Well, it
>> is
>> > nice to know I am not alone. You are right that this in particular is an
>> > organizational problem and not a LibGuides problem. But unfortunately it
>> > has been an organizational problem at both of the universities where
>> I've
>> > worked that use LibGuides, and it sounds like it is a problem at many
>> > other libraries. I'm not sure what it is about LibGuides that brings out
>> > the most territorial and user-marginalizing aspects of the librarian
>> > psyche.
>> >
>> > Does anyone have any positive experience in dealing with this? I am on
>> the
>> > verge of just manually enforcing good standards even though it will
>> create
>> > a lot of enmity. LibGuides CMS has a publishing workflow feature that
>> > would force all guide edits to be approved by me so that I could stamp
>> > this stuff out each time it happens.
>> >
>> > To enforce, or not to enforce, that is the question--
>> > Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of
>> > outrageously poor usability,
>> > Or to take arms against a sea of ugly guides,
>> > And by forcing compliance with standards and best practices, end them?
>> >
>> > Josh Welker
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>> > Will Martin
>> > Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 11:34 AM
>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
>> >
>> > > 4. Admin controls are not very granular. With most aspects of editing
>> > > a guide, you either have the option of locking down styles and
>> > > templates completely (and oh your colleagues will howl) or allowing
>> > > everything (and oh your eyeballs will scream). Some of these things
>> > > could very well be improved in the future, and some probably will not.
>> >
>> > This! My librarians have successfully resisted every attempt to impose
>> > any kind of standardization. Visual guidelines? Nope. Content
>> > guidelines? Nope. Standard system settings? Nope. Anything less than
>> > 100% free reign appears to be anathema to them.
>> >
>> > The result, predictably, is chaos. Our guides run the gamut. We have
>> > everything:
>> >
>> > - Giant walls of text that no one ever reads.
>> >
>> > - Lovingly crafted lists of obscure library sources that rarely (if
>> > ever) bear any relation to what the patron is actually trying to do.
>> >
>> > - A thriving ecosystem of competing labels. Is it "Article Indexes",
>> > "Article Databases", just plain "Databases", or something more exotic?
>> > Depends which apex predator rules this particular neck of the jungle.
>> >
>> > - Green text on pink backgrounds with maroon borders. Other pages in
>> the
>> > same guide might go with different, equally eye-twisting color schemes.
>> > I'm not even sure how he's doing that without access to the style sheet,
>> > but he's probably taught himself just enough HTML to mangle things in an
>> > effort to use "friendly" colors.
>> >
>> > - Some guides have three or even FOUR rows of tabs. With drop-down
>> > submenus on most of them, naturally.
>> >
>> > - A few are nicely curated and easy to use, but they're in a distinct
>> > minority.
>> >
>> > I've tried. I've pushed peer-reviewed usability studies at them. I've
>> > reported on conference sessions explaining exactly why all these things
>> > are bad. I've brought them studies of our own analytics. I've had
>> > students sit down and get confused in front of them. Nothing has gotten
>> > through, and being the only web type at the library, I'm outnumbered.
>> > Just the thought of it makes me supremely tired.
>> >
>> > I'm sorry if this has digressed. LibGuides is not at fault, really.
>> > It's an organizational problem. LibGuides just seems to be the flash
>> > point for it.
>> >
>> > Will
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jesse Martinez
>> Web Services Librarian
>> O'Neill Library, Boston College
>> [log in to unmask]
>> 617-552-2509
>>
>
>