User Guide Contents 


Accounts & Affiliations 

Bookmarks

Comments

Contributing Content 

For more on Contributing See Also: 

Contribute


Courses

Discussion Boards

Friends

Groups

My WebJunction

Recommendations

RSS

Search

Tagging

Webinars


Create an Account

To get started, create a free WebJunction member account.

1.    Go to the WebJunction homepage.

2.    Click the Create Account link. 

Create an account

3.    Complete all fields on the Join (step 1 of 3) page. Click on the help icon for additional information about those fields.

The text you put in the First Name and Last Name fields is what will be displayed on the site for you and others to see. Even though your username is not widely used, you should still choose something that you are comfortable with others seeing. 

Usernames are required to be at least 6 characters and should only contain letters and/or numbers. Do not use special characters in your username, such as punctuation. It is best to use your library email account to confirm that you work in a library in Ohio.

Complete all fields on the Join (step 1 of 3) page.

4.    Click Next.

5.    Entering Professional Interests is optional on the Join (step 2 of 3) page. This feature increases the opportunities for members to connect to others with similar interests or to find others based on expertise.

Choose your affiliation


6.  Select desired subscriptions. Your choice of email format depends on whether your email program will display images and special formatting (HTML) or only text.

7.  Click Next.

8.  Upon completion of this registration process, you will be automatically affiliated with WebJunction Central, which allows you to contribute content, take courses, connect with other members and otherwise participate on the site. However, you may be able to further customize your experience of WebJunction by affiliating with your state. Browse the list of affiliations and mark the checkbox next to an applicable community that you want to affiliate with. If the community specifies that it requires approval, you will receive notification by email when the administrator has confirmed your registration.

By affiliating with a community, you will have an additional link added to your My Account area that is your direct access to that site.  When you click on that link, you will be directed to the customized portal—with a customized color scheme—that has the potential to offer you specialized content and courses.


Choose an affiliation

9.    Click Join Now.

10.  You will see a Welcome, Thank you for joining WebJunction message page. Click the Continue button. You are now registered and signed in as a WebJunction member. A confirmation email will be sent to the address that you indicated in the first step of the registration process.

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Sign In

If you are already a WebJunction member, you may sign in using the same username and password as you have used in the past. If you are unable to sign in, select the Forgot Password link in My Account or contact support@webjunction.org. You must be signed in to contribute content, comments or ratings; post to discussions; bookmark pages; recommend content; purchase courses; add friends; or view certain member profile information.

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Profile Viewing and Privacy Options

When you created a member account with WebJunction, you also created a personal page on WebJunction called your Public Profile. This page carries information that would appear in a member directory as well as a summary of your activities on the site. 

When you and your members sign in to WebJunction, components of your Public Profile and Member Information will display. You can select the information that will appear to others when they view your Public Profile page. The more information you make visible to others, the more connections and opportunities for information exchange; however, we want you to choose the level of information you are comfortable sharing. 

To choose how much information you would like to make visible to others, select the Edit Account link in your My Account area after signing in. Then choose the Profile Viewing Options tab.


Edit your account

 

My Account tabs  

The Member Information Fields grid at the top of the page customizes the information that will appear in your Member Information, which is visible to anyone who looks at your Public Profile page. The lower portion of the page includes all other Applications that are available in your Public Profile page.


Edit privacy settings

There are three categories of viewers: Everyone, Members & Friends, and Only Friends. "Everyone" refers to anyone who visits WebJunction, regardless of whether they are a member or signed in. "Members" are those who have created a WebJunction account and are signed in. "Friends" are those members with whom you have chosen to share more information. 

To change the default (narrowest) setting, uncheck the Only Friends checkbox by the field you want to change, and then check the Members & Friends or Everyone checkbox. To provide the broadest accessibility, check  Everyone.

Click Save.

Next, customize who can see other information in your Public Profile using the Applications fields.
My Account and Member Information are marked by default because they must display in order for you to have an account and use the website. However, you can use the Member Information settings in the previous step to choose how much  information you wish others to see in these areas.

Click Save.

Manage profile viewing options

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Create an Avatar

An avatar is a visual representation of yourself online. On WebJunction, your avatar is a thumbnail-size image that appears on your Public Profile and also anywhere on the site where you interact with content or other members. If you post to a discussion board, comment on another member's profile or submit a document, your avatar will appear next to this content along with your name.

When you first create an account, a generic placeholder graphic is used until you upload a personal image of your choosing. Consider these guidelines when selecting an avatar:

  • Any image file type, such as a .png or .jpg file, can be used.
  • Select or create an image that is roughly 130 x 156 pixels. This is the optimal size for displaying the image across the site.
  • As a general rule, photos tend to display better than line drawing/cartoons.
  • Remember: the whole community will associate you with your image, so choose an image that is appropriate.
  • Do not use any copyrighted image.

Upload an Avatar to your Profile Page

1.    Click on Edit Account in the My Account area

2.    Under the Profile tab, click on the Change Photo link.

Change avatar photo

3.    Browse your computer and select the image you would like to upload.

4.    Click Save. This adds the file to the image directory.

5.   Return to the previous page (Profle page) and click Save on the top section under Member Information. This will add your avatar image to your profile.

Browse for an image and click save

5.    Your new avatar will now appear on your Public Profile and alongside your activity on the site.

Your new avatar will appear

See Also:

 

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Understanding Affiliations
 

When you create a WebJunction member account, you are automatically affiliated with WebJunction Central, which allows to you contribute content, take courses, connect with other members, and otherwise participate on the site. However, you may be able to further customize your experience of WebJunction by affiliating with your state.

You can edit and access your affilations through the My Account portlet. Click Edit Account and select the My Affiliations tab. Browse the list of affiliations and mark the checkbox next to an applicable community that you want to affiliate with. For example, if you live in Kansas, then you can select WebJunction-Kansas as an affiliation. If the community specifies that it requires approval, you will receive notification by email when the administrator has confirmed your registration.

By affiliating with a community, you will have an additional link added to your My Account area that is your direct access to that site.  When you click on that link, you will be directed to the customized portal—with a customized color scheme—that offers you specialized content and/or courses relevant to that community.

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Bookmarking Pages

You can bookmark pages on WebJunction to make them easy to find again in the future. Bookmarked pages are saved and accessed at the top of your My WebJunction page. If you choose to share your bookmarks with other members, they will display at the bottom of your Public Profile page.

1.   Find the page that you wish to bookmark.

2.   Look for the Bookmark icon at the bottom of the page, just above the footer.

bookmark portlet

2.    Click the Bookmark icon to add a link to this page to your Bookmark list on your My WebJunction page.

3.    The title of the page will appear in the popup box. Modify the title if you wish, then click Ok. Click Close to return to your page.

Give your bookmark a name

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Managing Bookmarks

You can manage your bookmarked pages by editing the name of the bookmark or deleting a bookmark.

1.    Locate the Bookmarks area on your My WebJunction page to view your bookmarked pages.
 

My Bookmarks portlet

2.   Click on the pencil icon (Edit) to the right of the bookmark name to edit the name of your bookmarks. Click on the trashcan icon (Delete) to remove the bookmark from your list. You should not use the Permissions icon (in the middle); it is nonfunctional. 

You can also manage your bookmarks as you create them, by clicking on the Manage WJ Bookmarks button.

Manage your bookmarks

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Comment on a Friend's or Member's Profile

The Comment feature allows you to comment on a friend’s Public Profile and on documents or courses. Commenting allows you to create your own personal discussion board on your profile and contribute to conversations on your friends’ profiles.

1.    On My WebJunction, in the Friends area, click on the avatar or name of the friend whose profile you wish to visit. (Use the Show All or List Friends links to see your full list of friends).

My friends portlet

2.    Click on one of your friends' names, or on the List Friends page click View Profile. Your friend’s Public Profile now displays.

The Public Profile page

 

3.    Locate their Comments Board and type your comment and click Post.

Post your comment to the comments board

Note: Others can view whatever you post on your Public Profile or comments posted on a friend’s profile, depending on the privacy options you or your friend has selected.

See Also:

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Comment on a Document or Course

Commenting on WebJunction content allows you to share feedback that is helpful to the community. Only signed-in WebJunction members can post comments; no anonymous commenting is allowed.

Comment on a Document

1.  Click on the title of any document on the site. It will open up in a new page.

2.  At the bottom of the page, type your comment in the blank box provided. If this box does not appear, please verify that you are signed in.

Post a comment on WebJunction content

5.    Click the Post button.

6.    Click Return to Full Page.

Your comment will now appear with the document.

 

Comment on a Course

You can comment on a course only after enrolling in and launching the course. Your comments will appear whenever a member or visitor views the course description page. Your comments can help others decide if a particular course will be valuable.

1.    Navigate to your My Courses page through My Account or your My WebJunction page.

2.    Select the course you want to comment on and click Add Your Comment.

3.    Type your comment and click Save.

4.    Your comment will now appear on the course description page.

 

See Also:


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Create a Document

You can publish articles, handouts, presentations and other types of content to WebJunction, thereby helping to build the community's knowledge base. You may post your document to any page that displays a Documents tab. Only signed-in members can post documents; anonymous publishing is not allowed.

You may post a document to any page that displays a Documents tab. Find the page most relevant to your content and follow the steps described below.

Create your Document

Click the Documents tab. You should see a Submit Document button at the top of this list. If you do not, please verify that you are signed in.

Click the Submit Document tab to begin the publishing process. There are four main steps to creating a document:

  • Enter document details
  • Enter content
  • Set Preferences
  • Copyright

 

 STEP 1: Enter document details

  1. Enter a Title. This can be no longer than 75 characters (including spaces). Be sure to choose a title that will make sense when read out of context from the rest of the document, such as in search results. Avoid vague or "cutesy" titles. 
     
  2. Enter the name of the document’s authors. By default, your name will appear in this field; you can change this if needed, simply by typing new text in that field.
     
  3. Write a description, which will appear on the site under the title of the document, summarizing the content. This text will also be used to aid searching, so it is helpful to choose terms that are likely search keywords. The description field is limited to no more than 250 characters.


Note: All 3 fields in this step are required; you will receive an error message if any are left blank.

Enter document details

If you scroll down the page, you’ll see the other three fields:
 

  • Publication Date: Defaults to today’s date; however, you can select a different date if needed. 
     
  • Choose Topic Pages: Defaults to the page you are currently working on. This field lists all of the pages in the site and lets you add the document to other pages in the site. However, it is currently recommended that you do not try to post to additional pages until we make refinements to this process. 
     
  • Tag this document: You can select tags from the list or add your own tags to describe your document.

  Chose a topic page

 

STEP 2: Enter content

You can enter content directly into the WYSIWYG editor or copy and paste content from another source, such as a Word document or text file. You can also choose to attach a downloadable file to your document. Executable files (e.g., an .exe. or .bat file) are not allowed due to the possibility of a virus. Please be aware that large files will be difficult for people with slower connection speeds to download.

 

Enter content
 
The WYSIWYG editor offers a variety of options for editing and formatting your text. You’ll find character selection and formatting tools, text search, and paragraph formatting, among others. You can add links to pages on other websites, images and tables to your own pages as well.

For more information on the editor see Using the WYSIWYG Editor to Create Content.

Upload files for download

You can also choose to upload a file such as a Word document or PDF file.
 

  1. Go to add/or upload a file beneath the WYSIWYG editor.
     
  2. Use Browse to locate the file that you want to upload. You can upload multiple files. Do not upload .exe. or .bat files, which are prone to viruses.

 

Upload a file

 

 STEP 3: Set Preferences

The third step when creating a document is to enable or disable other members' ability to rate the document. You do this by clicking the checkbox on the left side of the page. Rating is a five-star system for members to rank the value of content. 
 
Allow other members to rate your document

 

STEP 4: Enter copyright information

The final step is to add copyright information. There is only one field in this step, and it is required for posting the document. You can accept the copyright notice that is provided on the page or you can provide your own. (Or you can choose not to enter a notice.) In any case, you must click the checkbox acknowledging that you are legally entitled to distribute the content in order to complete the posting process.

You can find more information about copyright under the Copyright and Creative Commons section of this guide.
 

Enter copyright information

Once you have created your document, you can choose the following options:

  • Click Post to publish your document to the site
  • Click Save and Continue Editing to save the document but not publish it at this time
  • Click Delete to delete your document 
  • Click Preview to view the page before saving or posting
  • Click Cancel to exit the document editor
     

See Also:

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Using the WYSIWYG Editor to Create Content

WebJunction provides a full set of tools for adding and formatting text and graphics on a page. The following illustration contains a screenshot of the editor and its toolbars:

Toolbar for editing and formatting content

 

The top two lines in the toolbar are for handling text. Many of these buttons may seem familiar if you’ve used a word processor like Microsoft Word. If you are unfamiliar with a particular button, you can hover your mouse over the button and the name of the tool will appear after a few seconds.

 

Text Editing Tools

This table describes all of the toolbars and their function.

FunctionsToolbar and Buttons
Set font properties such as font type, size and colorFont and size             tool
Set character formatting properties like bold, italic, etc.Font             formatting tool
Undo/redo; Cut, copy and paste; paste from plain text, paste from Word; select all content; and remove formatCopy, paste             and undo edits
Find and replace content and perform spell checkingFind, spell             check
Create numbered and bulleted lists; indent or outdent paragraphs; left, center, right and full justify paragraphsAlign             paragraph text

  

HTML Formatting Tools

 

FunctionsToolbar and Buttons
View HTML codeView html             source code
Create and delete links and anchorsCreate html             links and anchors
Add images, Adobe Flash files, tables, emoticons and special charactersInsert images,             flash files and emoticons

 

The rest of this topic will show you how to use most of the HTML formatting tools in the last row of buttons:

  • Insert Link
     
  • Remove Link
     
  • Insert Anchor
     
  • Insert Table
     
  • Insert Smiley (Emoticon)
     
  • Insert Special Characters

We are currently working on documentation around inserting Flash files and will make this information available soon.

Add Links

Rather than pasting a website URL into the text, it is preferable to create a hyperlink for text in your document.

To add a link to a page:

1. Select the link text you want to link from and click the Insert/Edit Link button.

2. Enter the URL for the page you are linking to and click OK. In this case, we are linking to a page with information about USB flash drives.

Insert a link

If you prefer to display the URL in your text, watch out for long URLs that can distort the layout of the page. If your URL is long, consider using tinyurl.com to create a short version.

Remove a Link

To delete a link from a page, select the link and click the Remove Link button. This will not delete the text that was associated with the link.

Remove a link 

Insert/Edit Anchor

Anchors are used to allow a user to jump to a specific area on the page. For example, if you have a very long HTML page with several sections, you might put the phrase “Back to Top” at the end of each section. Doing this makes it easier for members to read and move through your document.

Create the Anchor

1.  Select anchor text and click the Anchor button.

2.  Enter a name for the anchor and click OK. For this example, we’ll call the anchor content_management

Create an anchor

The anchor has been added; now we need to link to it.

Add a Link to an Anchor

1. Select the text on your page that you want to link to your anchor.

2. Click the Insert/Edit Link button.

3. Select the Link to anchor in text.

4. Select the name of the anchor that you created earlier in the Select an An Anchor by Anchor Name dropdown box.

5. Click OK.

Link to an anchor
 

Insert/Edit Table

Please be aware that tables created in HTML can create problems for readers using certain browsers or accessibility devices, and they are therefore discouraged.

To add a table to a page:

Place the cursor where you want the table displayed and click the Insert/Edit Table button.

 

Insert a table

 

 

In this window, you can set

  • The number of rows and columns.
     
  • The width of the table in pixels or percent of the window. This should be no more than 700 pixels to prevent distortion of the page layout.
     
  • The height of the table in pixels.
     
  • The width of the border around the table.
     
  • Its alignment on the page – Left, Center or Right.
     
  • The amount of spacing between cells.
     
  • The amount of spacing between the border of the cell and its contents.
     
  • The caption for the table.
     
  • A summary of the table’s content.

These settings in the above example will create a table that looks like this:

Sample table

You can then insert content into each cell in the table.

 

Insert Smiley (Emoticon)

To insert a Smiley face on a page:

1. Click the Smiley button in the editor.

2. Select the “Smiley” character you want to use. The image will be placed on your page, in line with your text.

Insert smiley
 

Insert Special Character

Special characters are those which cannot be created with your keyboard, such as diacritics and certain punctuation. 

1. Click the Special Character button in the editor.

2. Select the Special Character that you would like to use. The character will be placed on your page, in line with your text.

Insert character

 

External Topics

The following site has additional information on using the WYSIWYG editor included with the WebJunction platform: http: //docs.fckeditor.net/FCKeditor_2.x/Users_Guide

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Insert an Image

You can add images to a document you create or edit on WebJunction. Before you can insert an image, you need to make sure your image is stored in a place where it can be accessed from the site. A photo-sharing website such as Flickr is a good option for this. Any formatting or resizing of your image should also be done before it is inserted into your document or portlet.

Adding an Image to your Document

The following example will show you how to add an image to your document:

1.    Locate the document you will add your image to and click the Edit link.
2.    Select the location where your image will be placed.
3.    Click the Insert/Edit Image button. 
4.    Copy the image URL and press CTRL + V to paste the image URL into the field.
5.    Add Alternative Text to your image. This text will appear if the browser is unable to display your image, which is important for those users with special accessibility requirements.

Add ALT text to your photo

6.    Click the OK button and the image will appear on the page.
 

For our example, the page would look like this:

Sample WJ Content Portlet with image added

Note: Adding alternative text or “ALT text” to your images makes your site more accessible for users who rely on a screen reader to interact with your site. The screen reader will read the ALT text and give visually impaired users a better understanding of the content on your site.

See Also:

 

 

Working with Images

This topic describes how to format documents with images and text.  

Before you Begin

  • If you haven’t created a document yet, you should see the Create a Document topic.
  • If you haven’t used the WYSIWYG editor, you should see the Using the WYSIWYG Editor to Create Content topic.

We also recommend that you resize your images to the size you want displayed on the page before you insert them into your document. This will ensure that your image is displayed correctly. Altering the size of your image within the WYSIWYG editor can cause some distortion. Images should be no wider than 700 pixels to avoid distortion of the page layout.

Scenario: You are creating a document about life in France and you want to add an image of the Eiffel Tower on the top left side of the page.

To add text and an image to a document:

1.    Enter your text into the WYSIWYG editor.

2.    Place the cursor where you want the image.

Insert an image

 

 

3.    Click the Insert/Edit Image button on the toolbar and complete the following fields

  • Leave the first two values as they are. They are the width and height of the image in pixels.
  • For the border field, set the value to 3.
  • For the HSpace field, set the value to 5
  • For the VSpace field, set the value to 5
  • For the Align dropdown, select Left.

4.    Click the OK button.

The final output should look like this:

  

HSpace, VSpace and Alignment

When you add images and text in a document, there are three terms you’ll want to understand first:
  • HSpace refers to the number of pixels to the left and right of the image
  • VSpace refers to the number of pixels above and below the image
  • Alignment refers to the position of the image relative to the text and the margins of the page. While the editor offers your 10 different options for aligning images, the topic will deal with only two of them – right alignment and left alignment

Here are three samples to show you how these values interact. 

Example 1: Border = 0, HSpace = 0, VSpace = 0

In this first example, the number of pixels to the left and right of the image is 0, as are the number of pixels above and below the image.

Example 1

 

The image aligns with the top and left side margins of the page, but there’s not enough space between the image and the text. The number of pixels between the bottom of the image and the top of the next line of text are another matter.

There is also no border around the image because the width of the border field is also set to 0. 

Example 2: Border = 9, HSpace = 9, VSpace = 9

In this case, the image does not align with the margins to the left and above, but there is more room between the image and the text to the right and below.

A border has also been added to show what a border of that width looks like.

Image with a heavy border

  

Example 3: Border = 3, HSpace = 9, VSpace = 0

For the third example, the HSpace value is 9, the VSpace value is 0, and the border is 3.

This sample is possibly the best of the three. The top of the image aligns with the top margin. The space between the right edge of the image and the text looks better, but the left edge of the image doesn’t align with the left margin of the page. 

Align the Image to the Margin

There are nine values for alignment. This illustration shows you your choices:

 

 

For the most part, you’ll use either Left or Right alignment. The samples above have shown you how Left alignment works.

This illustration shows you what Right alignment looks like when the text is left-aligned: 

 

 

This illustration shows you the right-aligned image with right-aligned text:

 

See Also:

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Copyright and Creative Commons

On WebJunction you have many opportunities to create and share your content. As noted in this user guide, you can create documents, upload images and contribute to discussions. We encourage the sharing of community created content, and we want you to know that you have options for protecting your "intellectual property" on the site. The following information pertains to your options for protecting the copyright on any documents you publish on WebJunction.

First, please familiarize yourself with our Terms of Use regarding copyright. This explains how content published on WebJunction is protected overall.

Creative Commons provides free tools that let you decide how you want to the public to interact with and possibly reuse your work. Creative Commons provides a range of options, from full copyright — all rights reserved — to the public domain — no rights reserved. The purpose of Creative Commons licensing is to provide legal protection of your work while encouraging others to use your work under defined circumstances, such as a class or presentation (a some rights reserved copyright).

Before selecting a Creative Commons license, you can find an overview of the different types of licenses available and find out which one is most appropriate for your work. Once you have selected a license, you simply copy and paste the code into the box under Step 4 of the document creation process. The license you select will protect your document under copyright and indicate to others how they can use your work appropriately.

 

Creative Commons license code

 

There are a lot of great resources available on the Creative Commons website for understanding the different types of licenses available.

For more on Contributing See Also:

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Purchase & Enroll in Course

You have several options for enrolling in courses on WebJunction. You can browse or search for courses on WebJunction by selecting Courses from the top banner navigation; this will take you directly to the Course Catalog. If you are affiliated with a Community Partner site, you can take advantage of discounted courses in your affiliation's private catalog.

If you are unaffiliated with a Community Partner site, you can still access and enroll in courses. Note:  WebJunction Ohio courses paid for by the State Library of Ohio are only available to staff working in  libraries and library organizationsin Ohio. Otherwise,  you can enroll in any online course available in the WebJunction Central catalog.

Locate a Course

You can seach for courses within the catalog or by using the global search in the top right corner of all WebJunction pages.

You can also browse for courses on any WebJunction site. Courses are grouped by subject area. The number of courses available is listed next to each subject area. You can click on the subject area to see an expanded list of courses.

Expande course list

 

Click on the title of a course to see the course details such as format, length and description. If you are signed in, you can also add tags to a course and recommend the course to a friend. You can view details on any course before you make a purchase.

 

View course info

 

You can add and remove courses from your cart before finalizing your purchase. When you are ready to purchase your courses, click the Go to Cart button.

 

Go to cart

  

Purchase a Course with a Credit Card

Course purchases are completed by using your Shopping Cart. You can navigate to your Shopping Cart on your My Account portlet or from your My WebJunction page.

When you are ready to make your course purchase, click Proceed to Checkout.

 

Enter your credit card information, including CSV number, which is the three-digit security code usually located on the back of your card, above the signature field. This security code is used in online credit card transactions to help prevent fraud.

Note: If this is your first time making a course purchase, click Add New Address to enter your billing address. You will only need to do this once, but your transaction cannot be completed without this information.

Enter credit-card info

You can now proceed by clicking Complete Order.

A confirmation message will display with a confirmation number and further instructions for launching your course. You can access your course by clicking the My Courses link. 

See Also:

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My Courses

The My Courses page is your place for managing and tracking your course activity on WebJunction. You can access the My Courses page from your My Account portlet. Once you have purchased a course, you can access and launch your course from the My Courses page.

 

My Courses page

1. Scheduled Courses

  • A list of in-progress scheduled courses that you are enrolled in.
  • When your course is scheduled to begin, you can start the course by clicking Launch Course.
  • Once you have launched a course, you can comment on it by clicking Add Your Comment.
  • You can recommend the course to a friend any time by clicking Recommend to a Friend.

2. Self-Paced Courses

  • A list of in-progress self-paced courses that you are enrolled in.
  • You can begin the course or return to it any time before completing it by clicking Launch Course.
  • Once you have launched a course you can comment on it by clicking Add Your Comment.
  • You can recommend the course to a friend any time by clicking Recommend to a Friend.

3. Recommendations for You

  • A list of courses that have been recommended to you by other WebJunction members. 

4. Courses History

  • A list of self-paced courses you have completed that have not expired. You can access these courses any time before they expire.
  • A list of courses you've completed that have expired. You cannot access courses once they have expired.
  • A list of all the courses (scheduled and self-paced) that you have completed.

 

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Course Code

If your organization participates in WebJunction's Volume Course Purchase Program, then your course units are pre-paid for you. (See above instructions under "Locate a Course" for browsing and searching for courses.)

When you are ready to make a course purchase, enter a course code in the field next to Course Code and click Apply Course Codes.

Note: You can only apply course codes for courses that are available in public catalogs.

Enter course code

Once your course code has been applied, click Proceed to Checkout.

You can now proceed by clicking Complete Order.

A confirmation message will display with a confirmation number and further instructions for launching your course. You can access your course by clicking the My Courses link.

Launch your course

See Also:

 

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Posting to Discussion Boards

Discussions can be found on many pages of the site, including Group pages. Discussions are open for everyone to view, but you must be signed in to WebJunction to reply to a post or create a new thread.

Create a New Discussion Thread

Be sure to familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines around discussion etiquette.

1.   Navigate to any page that displays a Discussion tab, for example, Basic Computer Skills.

2.    Click the Discussion tab.

Click on the Discussion tab

 

3.    Click the Post New Thread button at the bottom of the page.

 

Post new thread

4.    Type a title for your message in the Subject field. Choose a title that will convey the subject matter clearly to people scanning the discussion board. For example, "What do you think about this?" is vague; "How to reconfigure your mouse" is more specific.

5.    Type your message in the Body field. Formatting, hyperlinking and emoticons are available for your use.

6.    Add tags if you wish to help surface the content in search results.

7.    Attach files, if desired.

8.    Click Preview to view your post before submitting.

9.    Click Save (this will post your discussion). 

Reply to a Discussion Thread

You can reply to an existing discussion thread by clicking the Reply link and following the directions above for creating a post. The image below shows the options for participating in discussions:

A.    Your profile picture and name will appear each time you reply or post a new thread. You can also view the     recent posts from a particular member.

B.    Tag a discussion by adding your own tags or selecting tags from the list.

C.    Change your view of the discussion board, post a new thread or subscribe to a thread.

D.    Reply to a discussion thread. You can also choose to include a quote from the thread which you are replying to. Click Top to return to the original discussion thread.

Discussion board options

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Subscribe to a Discussion Thread

You can subscribe to individual discussion threads to follow the activity on a particular discussion. Each time a member posts a reply to the discussion, you will receive an email with the text of their post.

1.    Click on the Discussions tab.

2.    Click on the Actions button next to the thread you want to follow.

3.    You have two options for following a discussion thread: RSS and Subscribe.

4.    Click Subscribe to receive updates to a discussion thread by email. These subscriptions will also be listed on your My WebJunction page. You can delete a subscription in that area.

5.    Click RSS to receive updates to a discussion thread through an external RSS reader. (For more info on RSS, see the RSS section of the User Guide.)

 

Discussion board options

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Find and Add Friends

WebJunction helps you build your own professional networking community and increase knowledge exchange among your peers. Collaborate more directly with your peers by accessing and commenting on a friend's Public Profile.

1.    Select My WebJunction on the top banner navigation.

2.    Click Find Friends under the Friends section of the page.


Find friends


3.    Search for members by name, email address, place of work or geographical location. This will search the entire WebJunction member directory for matching results.


Search results for friends


4.    In the search results, find your friend and click Add as Friend

5.    A confirmation message will display: “Your friend request has been sent.” This will add a friend request to the invitee's My WebJunction page, as well as send a system-generated email to the address associated with their member account.

To respond to a friend request:

1.    Return to My WebJunction and select Friends Requests.


Friend requests

2    For each Friend Request, you are provided three options: View Profile, Accept Friend Request, or Remove Request.
Friends options

8.    Select Accept Friend Request to add the member to your list of friends. Use the View Profile link to learn more about the member first. Click Remove Request if you wish to delete the request rather than accept it.

You have now added this member to your Friends.

Note: Once you have added a friend you can see more of their profile, including their other friends!

See Also:

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Create a Group

What Makes a Good Group?

Groups help you connect and share resources and discussion with colleagues around a common interest. While the WebJunction site map covers a variety of topic areas, groups allow you to specialize within these topic areas. For example, you can connect with colleagues who are:

  • Interested in a specialty not addressed in a topic area
  • In a certain geographical locale
  • Working on a project together
  • Enrolled in a common course, to share as a learning cohort
  • Attending a conference
  • Alumni of an LIS institution
  • A staff cohort for a library system or branch 

Determine if your interest is already covered in an existing topic page by browsing, searching or viewing the site map. If you find an existing topic, share your documents and discussions there. For a list of recently added groups, visit the Member Center homepage.

Create a Group

1.     Click the Create Group link.

Create a groups

 

2.       Enter Name and Description information.

Note: In naming your group, please use this naming convention:

Group: name of group (e.g., Group: ALA 2009).

You are required to add or select at least 3 tags. This helps ensure that groups are created to address topics and interests not yet represented on the site.
 
Give your group a name
 

3.       Click Continue.

Browse the existing groups displayed to determine if your suggested group is unique to the site.

See if a group already exists around your topic

4.       Scroll to the bottom of the page.

5.       Click Yes to continue the group creation process. Clicking No will cancel the process.

Create your group

By default, this group will be associated with the topic page you were viewing when you selected Create Group.

Create a group

6.       Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the checkbox to the left of the “I accept that WebJunction has the right to move or delete the Group and all members within the Group” to enable the Save button.

7.       Click the Save button.

8.       Exit the Create Group procedure.

You have two options for exiting the Create Group Procedure: either by clicking the “Take me to my new group page” button or by clicking the Return to Full Page option.

View your group

 

Join the Group

Now that you have created the group, you need to join it.

1.       Click your new Group link.

2.       Click the Join Group link.

Join your group

Your display will "grey out" and you’ll be asked if you are sure want to join the group.

3.       Click the Confirm button.

Confirm

You will see a confirmation that you have been added to the group. You can now invite other members to the group.

You have joined your group

  

Invite People to Join Your Group

1.    Go to your Group page. Make sure you have joined the group; your avatar will be displayed in the Group Members area.

2.    The Invite People and Leave the Group links will display on Group Members.

3.    Click Invite People.

4.    Enter one or more email addresses.

5.    Click Send.  A standardized email will be sent to the recipients to invite them to join your group. Those who are not already WebJunction members will be invited to register in order to join the group.
 

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Recommend Content & Courses

Recommend Content

You must be signed in to use this feature.

1.    Select the title of a document to open it up.

2.    Click the Recommend to Friend button at the bottom of the page.

Recommend to a Friend button

3.    A new window will open on top of the greyed-out page.

Recommend an article

6.    Enter one or more email addresses of the people (members or nonmembers) to whom you would like to send this recommendation into the Email Address field. You must use commas to separate the addresses (do not use semicolons). You can enter up to 5 addresses.

7.    Click Send. A standardized email will be sent to the addresses that you entered, with a link to the content you are recommending. 
 

Recommend Course

You may come across a course description and want to recommend it to someone on WebJunction (or even someone who might not be a WebJunction member). You can recommend a course to a friend or WebJunction member, even if you have not enrolled in the course. However, you must be signed in to use this feature.

1.    Locate a course by browsing the catalog under the Courses tab or through search.

2.    Click on the course name to view the course description.

3.    On the course description page, click Recommend to Friend.

4.    Enter the email addresses of the people you want to receive your recommendation.

5.    Click Send. A standardized email will be sent to the addresses that you entered, with a link to the course you are recommending. 
 

Course Recommendation

Your recipient will receive your email message with a link to the course description in the WebJunction course catalog.

 

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Create an RSS Feed

You can set up an RSS feed to keep up to date with new content posted to the site. Any page that displays the orange RSS "chicklet" can be fed into an external RSS feed reader.

RSS chicklet

 

Before you begin

An RSS feed reader is a third-party tool that WebJunction can interact with. Most are available for free and are easy to set up. Some commonly used feed readers are

 

Setting up a Feed for a Topic Page

1. Locate the page you want to add to your feed reader.

2. Click on the orange RSS chicklet.

3. A new page will open with code that you can copy and paste into your RSS reader.

RSS code view

 

Setting up a Feed for a Discussion

You can also set up RSS feeds as a way to follow discussion posts. You can receive updates on all of the discussions on the page, or you can follow an individual thread.

Follow All the Discussions on a Page

1. Locate the discussion page you want to follow.

2. Click on the orange RSS chicklet in the upper right corner of the page.

3. Copy and paste the RSS code into your feed reader.

Follow a discussion page

 

 

Follow a Single Discussion Thread

1. Locate the discussion thread you want to follow.

2. Click on the Actions button.

3. Click on the orange RSS chicklet.

4. Copy and paste the code into your RSS feed reader.

Follow a single discussion thread.

 

Search

You can search for content, courses and WebJunction members using the global search box at the top right of every page on WebJunction. You can also search the course catalog using the search box built into the catalog.

A global WebJunction search will look for your search term where it is found within Content (which includes documents and discussions), Courses, Members and Groups.

The most common search is a keyword search. A keyword search looks for terms in the title, author, description and tags, as well as where your term(s) appear in the content on Public Profile pages of other members.

Search results and the number of items returned are displayed across the Content, Courses, Members and Groups tabs.

Search

 

Advanced Search

Below is information about some advanced search parameters from our current site. All the operators should be the same in the new Search (although indexing and relevancy will be improved):

To narrow your search, use the following methods:

Phrase search

  • To match an exact word or phrase, use quotes around the word or phrase. Example: "public access computing"

To find results that contain all of the search terms:

  • Use AND between each of the terms. Example: immigrant AND patrons (note: AND must be in all caps)

OR

  • Precede each word with a plus sign (+). Example: +immigrant +patrons

To eliminate a term from the results:

  • Use NOT between each of the terms. Example: patrons NOT immigrant (note: NOT must be in all caps)

OR

  • Precede the term to be eliminated with a minus sign (-). Example: patrons -immigrants

Field Search

  • You can limit a search to a specific field in the index by placing a colon between the fieldname and a single word.
  • The fields available for searching are: keywords, description, author, title, and reference
    • Example:  title:wiki
    • This search will find items in which the title contains the word wiki.
  • If you include additional words in the search, Search looks for these added words in the content.
    • Example: title:wiki public software
    • This search will find items in which the title contains the word wiki and may contain the words public or software.

 

Tagging

Creating Tags and Tagging Content

A tag is a keyword or term that describes an item. Tags also help others find items through browsing or searching. You can create your own tags or select them from the list.

You have many options for creating tags and tagging content on the site. You can add tags to the following content on WebJunction:

  • Your public profile page under Select Interests
  • Documents
  • Discussions
  • Groups
  • Courses

A lot of tags have already been populated; however, we encourage you to add your own tags to this list.

Tag Documents, Groups and Courses

You can add tags to documents, groups and courses. Tags help to describe content, make it more searchable and link to related content. The following example will show you how to tag a document. Adding tags to other types of content follows a similar process.

  1. Click the title of any document.
  2. Look for the text box alongside the Add Tags or Select Tags button.Add tags 
  3.  To select from a list of tags that already exist, click on the Select Tags button.
  4. Check the boxes beside the tags that you want to select; you can select more than one.
  5. Click Save.

If you don’t find any existing tags that you want to use:

  1. Type the tags you prefer in the text box, separated by commas, and click Add Tag. 

See Also:

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Webinars

WebJunction continues to offer an ongoing series of webinars that provide free online learning opportunities. Webinars are open to everyone; however, registration is required.  You can find more information about our schedule of upcoming webinar topics on the webinars page. All of our webinars take place online using the Wimba Classroom web conferencing tool.

Webinar Registration

WebJunction webinars require registration via the WebJunction Calendar. Webinar attendees will receive confirmation of their registration by email as well as an additional follow-up reminder before the webinar. Instructions for joining the webinar are located in the calendar entry for the webinar and will also be sent in the reminder email. Registration will be open up to 1 hour before the webinar.

Before you Attend

Before attending any Wimba Classroom event you should first walk through the Setup Wizard. Do this at any time before attending your first Wimba session (live or archived)--you won’t need to do it again. The Wizard will ensure you have the software and configuration you need to see and hear the presentation.  

Wimba Classroom Guide
 

You can find additional information on attending webinars using Wimba Classroom in our Wimba Classroom Guide.

 

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If you need additional guidance, please visit the Help & Support page.

If you have questions or comments about the User Guide, please post them in the User Guide Questions and Discussions.