Administering LibGuides   Tags: design, engl100  

Welcome LibGuides System Administrator!

Getting started with your LibGuides system is very simple - only two things are involved:

1) Customizing the look and feel of the system (the banner, colors, homepage text, the URL for the library catalog search) via the "system settings" tab on the admin homepage.

2) Creating "regular" or "administrator" accounts for other librarians.

When you create a new account, there is a checkbox which reads "Allow this account to modify system-wide settings." If you check this box, the account you are creating will be able to modify system-wide settings and create new user accounts in LibGuides.  Most LibGuides systems contain between one and four admin-level accounts, but you are welcome to create as many or as few as you would like.

When you log on to your admin page, click on the "System Settings" tab. Then just click inside any of the text you wish to change and you will be able to edit it. The fields are self-explanatory, and there is help available by clicking on the blue help icon after the field name.

Note about the logo/banner. The logo you upload must be exactly 970 pixels wide! The height can vary, but we recommend keeping it under 100px high, for the best visual effect on the page. When you upload a new banner, the old banner will be erased from the system.

One of the items that you are able to change from the "System Settings" screen is the "Home Page Text". There you can enter the introductory text your visitors will see when they load your LibGuides homepage. This text can be any length, but we recommend one or two sentences, briefly describing the content found in the system. This text will appear directly below the "Welcome to LibGuides" title and above the tag cloud.

To create a new user account, go to the main admin page, and select Manage Accounts -> Add New Account.  If you want this new user to be able to modify system-wide settings AND to be able to create other accounts which can modify system-wide settings, make sure the box "Allow this account to modify system-wide settings." is checked! If the box is unchecked the account you are creating will NOT be able to modify system-wide settings or create/manage LibGuides accounts.

LibGuides visitors can search the library catalog from the homepage, as well as from any Guide (the search box on Guide pages is in the upper right corner of the Guide).

To enable visitors to search the catalog, you must customize the Catalog Search URL field in the System Settings. You may need to consult your catalog technical staff about the url for the remote search queries of the catalog. In order for the search to work properly, the remote script (on the catalog server) should be able to handle a GET request.

At the bottom of every page, there is a "Report a support issue" link which can be used to send support issues to Springshare and the LibGuides system administrator.