[WEB4LIB] interactive help sheets

[Kathy P. Wheeler]

Meg: I don't know about anyone else but this would irritate me. The first 
thing I did when I got MS Word was figure out how to close the assistant.

Kathy Wheeler                    e-mail: kwheeler at jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Electronic Services Librarian    
University Library
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL  36688
homepage: http://library.southalabama.edu

On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Margaret Atwater Singer wrote:

> Please excuse any cross posting!
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> With the arrival of Web based indexes and full text databases, many
> libraries have reconsidered the validity of print help sheets.  At the
> University of Evansville, we decided to stop creating help sheets for
> the databases which have online help - which is about all of them.  But
> how much use they get and how useful they actually are is another story.
> 
> What I would like to do provide further help for our patrons is 1 of 2
> things (preferably #2):
> 
> 1.  when selecting a database, it opens into 2/3 of the window while the
> reminder is taken up with a typical help guide created by a librarian
> with suggestions to improve search recall and precision (of course, not
> in that jargon!) and other useful tips about using the database.
> 
> How would this happen?  I really don't know.  Would it be possible to
> click on a link for Firstsearch and make this happen?
> 
> 2.  when you select a database, an assistant automatically opens up -
> patterned somewhat on the assistant in MS Word, Excel, etc.  It could
> suggest synonyms, alternative spellings, how to use truncating symbols,
> etc.
> 
> Would this be possible or even logical for 1 library to create?  (I have
> a feeling would fall more to database vendors to develop, but I could be
> wrong!)
> 
> Has anyone done either of these two things?  If yes, could you send me
> the URL?  I would welcome any and all information.
> 
> Cheers,
> Meg
> --
> Margaret Atwater Singer
> Instruction/Reference Librarian
> University of Evansville
> 1800 Lincoln Avenue
> Evansville, IN  47722
> ma35 at evansville.edu
> 812-479-2487
> 
> 
>