interactive help sheets

[Margaret Atwater Singer]

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