Category: Websites

Bookface Friday

If you are a librarian into social media, you may have seen Bookface Friday posts. If not, I’ll briefly explain what a “bookface” is. A bookface is a photograph of a book jacket—usually the front cover but not always—lined up with a background in real life. Often the cover is a person’s face, but it could also be any body part. Sometimes they are not humans at all but rather animals, bookshelves, food, plants, and landscapes. We once used an airplane.

Bookface Friday was reportedly started in August 2014 by Morgan Holzer at the New York Public Library. Soon after, other librarians started posting their own images and the trend took off. They are usually posted to Instagram and Twitter on Fridays, thus the hashtag #BookfaceFriday.

Hunt Library where I work has been making bookfaces since 2016. They are created by our Social Media Team of which I am a member. Since 2018, I have appeared in four of these and worked behind the scenes on several others. They are fun to create.

Continue reading Bookface Friday

My Website from 1996 to 2020

For 2020 I redesigned my website homepage and freshened up the site. It had been virtually unchanged for about four years. During the redesign, I had a look back to all of my previous websites; I have kept an archive of all major updates since 1996. Here are 20 screenshots of the homepage for my website covering 24 years. We’ll start at the present and go backwards in Web time.

2020

jamesday.net Homepage 1/1/2020

Here is the new homepage launched on 1/1/2010. It has a rotating image gallery corresponding to the eight main pages.

Continue reading My Website from 1996 to 2020

Google Featured Snippet

As you may have seen elsewhere on my website, I created and maintain a library technology website called Library Technology Launchpad. On that site I write about various topics relevant to librarians such as websites, online resources, open access, and others. My most popular series is the Basics and Resources Series. In this collection of articles, I have covered topics such as APIs, Discovery Services, Linked Data, OAI-PMH, proxy servers, and more.

While searching for some sources for an article posted today, I was pleasantly surprised to see my own work as a featured result. I entered the search terms “library discovery services” (without the quotes) into Google and got back a screen of search results. There at the top as the “featured snippet” was a description from, and link to, my Library Technology Launchpad website.

Google featured snippet for library discovery services

So from a search that resulted in 324 million results, Google selected my article as the top source for the topic. In order to see whether Google was basing this ranking on my searching or browsing history, I asked a colleague to perform the same search. She confirmed that she also got my website as the featured snippet.

Anyone who posts articles to the Web hopes to get listed on the first or second page of Google search results. Although I’ve frequently found posts or pages from my Library of Motoring website high in Google results, this is the first time that I have had, to my knowledge, an article featured on Google. That it is a professional library article makes it more satisfying. Hopefully this inclusion indicates a high search ranking for my Library Technology Launchpad site as a whole.

Work Projects Completed 2015-2016

Staff at Embry-Riddle just completed annual performance reviews.  For the year from March 2015 through March 2016 I had three major projects, all completed before their respective deadlines.

Hunt Library Website Redesign and Launch

Last year I completed the planning, analysis, and requirements for the new Hunt Library website.  This year I began the development of the site organization and building of the site pages and content.  I worked with the university’s Web Team to develop features of the content management system for library hours and news.  Once the design was completed, I worked with the library’s Assessment Team to assess the usability of the website which resulted in some small but important improvements.  The Hunt Library website launched on time with little disruption to our online services.

Hunt Library Website (Pre-Launch)

See the current Hunt Library website at https://huntlibrary.erau.edu. Continue reading Work Projects Completed 2015-2016