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image carousel

What’s On Your Image Carousel?

A quick scan of library websites reveals that most have embraced the image carousel as a means of communicating news and announcements with library users. It’s how we share information about new resources, special events, library collections and any bit of information we think our patrons (or students or faculty or visitors) would like to know.

Creating effective images for a library website carousel can be a challenge. There is a delicate balance of imagery and text that, if distributed too far in either direction, can make your carousel announcements fade into the website background or cause digital users to shield their eyes and exit a page faster than you can say Google Analytics.

We’ve shared examples of web slides and carousel images in previous posts, and today we bring you a few more examples courtesy of Michael Hughes, Instruction Librarian at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Two Screens Are Better Than One. Check Citations on Your Phone

Here’s what Michael has to say about creating effective web announcements:

I create carousel images for our website in order to promote new acquisitions or services. Here are two banners I made, one for our site-wide New York Times subscription and another for our mobile citation tool. Heat map testing demonstrates that the carousel is one of the least-clicked parts of the library website, but my images also appear in a slideshow that plays in the library’s cafe. At any rate, the carousel is just one component of an outreach strategy and, as a bonus, the images keep the website from appearing disused.

Enjoy Full Access to NYTIMES.COM

Michael’s carousel slides present a nice balance of text and images while connecting website visitors to important library resources.You can download the original, editable Photoshop files of these slides from the Librarian Design Share Google Drive folder.

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When Your Library’s Blog Needs a Little Push

Like a lot of libraries, the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Library has a blog. The librarians (and some of our library staff) are rotating contributors, and we try to cover everything from interesting stuff in our print and online collections to events to what’s going on in the info-verse. It’s a mixed bag, but we like it that way.

Although we offer plenty of ways for our campus community to subscribe to content updates (Twitter, RSS, Email), I haven’t been super successful at increasing our number of subscribers. So to make sure that people know about our blog, I try to highlight our posts on our library website’s image carousel. Here are my latest efforts:

Learn about weeding in the library
Photo Credit: Chickweed forest by Wayne Marshall on Flickr.
A St. Mary's Librarian at the NYPL
Photo Credit: Image by SMCM Librarian Alana Verminski
Who's that pre-1941 alumna?
Photo Credit: Image from the St. Mary’s Library Archives

How do you highlight your library’s blog?

For the original Photoshop files of these slides, email Veronica Arellano Douglas.

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Visualizing Collections

afro-am-imprints

We’re nearing the end of the fiscal year at my library, which means we’re in a mad dash to spend our acquisitions budget. As a result we have a number of different databases on trial at the moment. Each of these slides appears on our library’s website and are meant to draw people in to the database content.

It’s a tricky thing to do. Databases are not often considered “sexy” and unless they’re archival collections with interesting images like the Afro-Americana Imprints, it can be difficult to draw users in to check them out.

latin-american-newspapers

I created each slide in hopes that they would catch the eyes of our students and faculty and introduce them to a new resource. I’ll let you know if they work!

For the original Photoshop files, email Veronica Arellano Douglas.

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New Designs For an Image Carousel

REI Hiking, Gadgets, Tips, and More

Today’s designs come from Becky Schneider, Reference Librarian & Webmaster at the Morse Institute Library. After adding an image carousel to her library’s website, Becky’s been brushing up on her self-taught graphic design skills.

Magazine of the Week AdvertisementHere’s Becky’s view on her design work:

I try to keep my designs minimal but still varied in look and feel. I work in GIMP[the GNU Image Manipulation Program]. My graphics and fonts are from the Open ClipArt Library and Open Font Library. I’ve learned so many good tips from The Non-Designer’s Design & Type Books by Robin Williams (not that Robin Williams).

I’m curious about how other small to medium-sized libraries divvy up design and publicity-related duties. I do graphic design for the web, staff do flyers for their own programs and displays, and our outreach person writes for external media. Signage, other than our primary locational signage, is a bit miscellaneous. If anyone wants to share their own experiences with managing publicity and design in the comments, I’d be interested.

How do you manage design and publicity in your own libraries?

For the original GIMP files of these slides, email Becky Schneider.

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