Montana State University has Google Apps enterprisewide
Created a variety of apps:
- Search widget: catalog, articles, journals, proxied Google Scholar
- Database widget: Can customize with top 20 popular dbs (and display 5 at a time)
- Feeds widget for library blogs, Twitter, new books, videos
- Flickr widget
- MediaHub: video, audio, etc. Most recently published one shows up
- Google maps widgets: street view tour of campus (very popular)
- WIkipedia map of campus
- Chat reference widget
- Tour widget (video on YouTube)
- Floor maps widget (Flash vector map)
- Archives widget (pictures)
- Photo album widget
- Course specific gadgets
Coding: HTML, Javascript, and CSS
Widgets can be used in web pages with some modification as well
Working on ad for front page of website during redesign
Promoting them: Users can find through Google directory and promotion on website
When gadget is created, submit to a directory: advertising from Google directory and main library website
You can embed iGoogle gadgets in other things without requiring people to have an iGoogle account (as long as it handles javascript, you can put it in LMS, LibGuide, websites, Google Wave, etc)
You can sign up for a developer account to get a sandbox to play in
Google Gadget Editor: http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/tools.html#GGE
Google Gadget Sandbox: http://google.com/ig/sandbox/
Don't have to be a coder; can just plug and play as long as you know flash file or feed name; others require HTML/XML, CSS and Javascript skills; they make code available
Markup and tags: <ModulePrefs>-Gadget settings; <UserPref>-User personalization (customized databses);
Publishing gadgets: Go to http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docspublish.html
Add metadata to help SEO: e.g. title_url=LIBRARYLINK
To see how it was done, View Source on existing gadgets
Best practices:
Think small apps;
- start simple (search box)
- Enter a lot of metadata
- Host your files locally (more control) and then let Google know you updated
- Use dev tools
- Monitor stats
Tracking stats (several ways)
- iGoogle dashboard: igoogledeveloper.blogspot. com/2009/11/launching-igoogle-gadget-dashboard.html
- Google Analytics
- iGoogle Directory stats
Pretty good stats esp. for Wikipedia map, video repository (campuswide for these); search widget;
Unique users have selected widget and put it on their page; page views is how many times people have hit it in
Demos: lib.montana.edu/tools/gadgets.php
lib.montana.edu/%7jason/
Other people doing this:
- Nina McHale: crln.acrl.org/
- Ed Metz: http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/index.php/archive/igoogle-gadgets/\\
Future:
- Micro-library apps
- What will happen to the library web
- Library services as widget
- Rolling your own everything