Color Guide

A little reference guide:

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

History of Typeography

This is just cool. Enjoy the nerdiness!

Basics of Web Design: Book Review

The Book

Title: Basics of Web Design: HTML5 & CSS3 
Author: Terry Felke-Morris

I read this book for the class LIS 5937: Web Design for Librarians. It was a good class though tedious. Web design is about attention to detail while keeping the big picture in mind. This book shows the reader which tools are available to build professional websites out of a simple notepad.

The Review

I particularly enjoyed this book because the text was laid out in a simple, logical manner. This was a book written about the web, but also written like the web. Hence, there were a lot of bullet points, lists and tables that allowed for easy digestion of the material.

In addition, the sections were laid out brilliantly from an editing perspective. As everyone knows, new information is constantly released on this topic, and books must be revised accordingly. The sections stand alone and could easily be removed, rearranged or edited in isolation.

Finally, I found myself using this text as reference material. The index was superb, and I was able to get to all the relevant information for the project at hand with little hindrance.

I wholeheartedly recommend this text to any novice/advanced beginner who needs a little guidance/an offline reference tool for web design. Quite frankly, all of the information in the book can be found online, but sometimes the structure of a book can help beginners get their feet wet.

The Citation

Felke-Morris, T. (2011). Basics of web design: HTML5 and CSS3. Addison-Wesley

That Time of the Semester

A Semester Has Ended

Since this semester is basically over, I'm going to have a lot of material to post. I will be posting about my overall experiences with Collection Development and Maintenance and Web Design for Librarians. First, I will review the textbooks that we used in the courses:

• Collection Development and Management for 21st Century Library Collections by Vicki L. Gregory
• Collection Management Basics by G. Edward Evans and Margaret Zarnosky Saponaro
• Basics of Web Design by Terry Felke-Morris

I understand that reviewing textbooks sounds a little less interesting than watching paint dry, so I understand if nobody cares to read these next few posts.

Why I Dumped Dynamic Views

If it's so dynamic, why leave it?

Here's the deal. I really liked the dynamic views when I converted. I liked the slick styling and the awesome reconfiguration options that could go from Mosaic to Timeslide to whatever my readers wanted to see.

I liked the way I had configured color to make it clean and readable, with a noted exception for the fact that it was easy to click out of an article by mistake. Otherwise, I thought it was cool.

Why leave Dynamic Views behind? My decision, like most of my techno-decisions, was all about the gadgets.

Look and feel

I was happy with the look and feel of Dynamic Views for a while. But I missed having absolute control over my design. And if my web page is a reflection of my sensibilities, then I had better have absolute control over it.

Twitter gadgets

I want to connect with people on Twitter and other social mediums. How lame is it that I couldn't put a simple link to my Twitter page on the side of my own blog? I was used to displaying #litnerd and #btsermon tweets, but I couldn't do it with the Dynamic Views layout. The only option available to my through that template was Google Plus.

Very lame.

Comments with Disqus

Allow me to be honest, people don't really care to connect with me on Twitter. I have never had an individual talk to me about my blog, or other blog, or other blog through Social Media. However, Disqus was a revelation when I used it to replace the Blogger comment system before switching to Dynamic Views. (For those interested, other comment replacement options include Live Fyre and Intense Debate.)

While I could live without a Twitter badge on my blog, I have come to the conclusion that I need more control over my blog in order to implement Disqus again. I did not want to wait around any longer for Dynamic Views to finally improve their comment system. I hope that by doing so, I can rekindle the comment magic that my blogs had enjoyed about a year ago.

Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But it doesn't hurt to try!

Have you tried Blogger's Dynamic Views? Do you like it? Why or why not?

Pressing Your Buttons

Web Design

The operative word here is "design," as in: Library Design. An early task in my Web Development for Librarian's class is to familiarize myself with the content management system known as Wordpress. The fruits of my labor revolve around that concept of Library Design.

I know, I know; I'm a Blogger guy. I chose to work with Blogger instead of Wordpress back in 2011 (actually before then with a previous blog). However, I must say that Wordpress is quite beautiful. I knew this before, but now I have tasted the forbidden nectar. You can now say I am experienced in the ways of Wordpress.

Either way you slice it, both Blogger and Wordpress allow you to do the same kinds of things. I have successfully customized Blogger's dynamic theme to accomplish my purposes & I have no doubt that Wordpress offers the exact same level of customization.

I look forward to more challenging exercises in Web Design as we continue through the semester.

Dreaming of Springtime

What else would you do the day after Christmas? I'm keeping warm with thoughts of Web Design & Collection Development. Here's the official description of what my life will be like until April. (This semester has already wrecked one weekend, we'll see how extensive the damage will end up being.)

LIS 5937 Web Design for Libraries (3) This course will provide the student with an
introduction to Web Design basic including theory, concepts and techniques. Topics will
include best practices, structure, layout, style sheets, graphics, publishing, templates,
software, and other web applications. After this course the learner will be able to:

• Research, evaluate and describe the considerations regarding usability, accessibility, navigability, cultural sensitivity, global issues, and good design practices for websites in an instructional and informational resource environment.
• Create and modify web page elements using various web and graphic creation tools for appropriate layout and design objectives.
• Research and analyze current web design issues, elements, and considerations.
• Create a web site employing good design principles and using appropriate content for an instructional and information resource environment.
• Understand the use of graphic representations.

LIS 6511 COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE (3) Developmental

approach to building library collections of both print and non-print materials. Emphasis

upon evaluation, selection, and acquisition of library materials as they uphold the

objectives of the institutions for which they are selected and acquired.