This is what the public view of the A-Z Databases looks like
You can use the filtering features, by letter, subject, or searching. In the image below, the results have been filtered to databases that start with “F.”
However, if you try to search within an already filtered list, you will only get results from the filtered list, not from the whole list of databases. In this case, searching for “compendex” in a filtered list by “F” results in “0 Databases found.”
Springshare documentation on how to add a database to a LibGuide
To add a database to your LibGuide from the new A-Z Databases list, select the “Add/Reorder” button on the part of your guide you wish to edit, and then select “Database” from the dropdown menu that appears. A benefit to using this method is that if the title or description change, the information will automatically update in your guide; you do not have to maintain it.
Then you can search for a database in the A-Z list.
Once you have selected the database you want, the record pulls up. You can see the description for the record, and a field where you can add your own description.
Adding your own description will change the description of the database for your guide and does not alter the description on the A-Z list. This also means that if the description of the database does change, your description will not change.
Your database will look like this in the public view of the guide.
Assets are like making a copy of the database file. You have full control of the record and you can search for them to add over multiple guides. Unlike adding a database, the title or description will not update automatically if the database is updated. You will have to maintain the record on your own. However, you can make an update to your asset record and it will update all instances of the asset across all guides.
To add an asset to your guide, select “Link” from the “Add/Reorder” dropdown in your guide.
A pop-up that looks like the image below will appear, and you will need to fill in the name, the URL, and description. Not: In the image below the name and URL are already filled in, but this is not an auto-fill or a search. You will need to enter the name and URL on your own.
Once you have added in all of the information you need, you can save it and it will show up like this in the published version of the guide (linked name with a description underneath).
You can use the new friendly URLs to make regular links in your guides. These links are not managed by A-Z Databases or your own assets. They are essentially single links, unattached to anything. These links will not change if the database is removed or the name changes. They will need to be updated manually.
To add a link to the text of your guide, select “Add/Reorder” and select “Rich Text/HTML” from the dropdown.
Write in the name of the link you want, and select the text you want to link.
Add in the friendly URL in the URL field, and click “Ok.”
Springshare’s documentation on how to add databases to LibGuides as a widget
With the A-Z databases, you can add a widget with a list of databases to your guide. This list can be filtered by subject or keyword. With this feature, if anything changes to any of those databases, the widget will automatically update with it. So, if a database is removed from the A-Z databases, it will automatically be removed from the widget list too. The same is true if the database name or description changes.
To add a widget of databases to your guide, go to Tools in the top navigation bar, and select “Widgets” from the dropdown.
From the next page, select the “A-Z” tab.
On this page, you can set the parameters for your widget. You can scroll down to the subjects filter, and filter the list that way.
You can also use the search to filter the list by search term. Keep in mind that this will only search the A-Z databases records, not any assets you or anyone else have created.
To show the descriptions of the databases in your list, you can check the “Display description box.”
You can also limit the number of results using the “Number of results” field and entering in the number of results you want.
Once you have the list you want, copy the code from the “Embed code” field on the top right of the page.
Then, go to edit your guide and select the “Add/Reorder” button. Select “ Media/Widget” from the dropdown.
In the resulting pop-up, paste the copied code into the “embed code” field in the “Create new widget tab” and add a name for your widget.
The widget will look something like the image below. Note that the widget pictured does not have descriptions displayed.
The new list of databases will have subjects attached to them. When a user filters the A-Z Databases list by subject, guides that are tagged with that same subject will show up in the right column of the results.
To add or edit the subject of your guide, go into edit mode. Then, at the top on the left, under the “Last updated” and “URL” fields, there is a field called “Subject.” Click on the pencil icon next to this field.
This will trigger a pop-up. The pop-up has a dropdown menu icon and asks you to make a selection. Click on the menu.
From the dropdown menu, select the checkbox for all of the subject(s) that apply to your guide. It is most likely that your guide will only have one subject it relates to. Then, click “Save.”
The LibGuides A-Z list provides:
Want to request a new resource be added to the A-Z list?
Order form for information resources
Want to request an edit to an entry in the A-Z list?
