Crash Course in Web Design for Libraries

by Charles P. Rubenstein

Overview

This stand alone workbook is intended for individuals with an interest in developing professional-looking websites without having to learn HTML language. Using a typical Microsoft Windows environment with cut and paste templates and examples, the book helps users learn and understand some of the benefits and limitations of commercially available software. It will be a handy reference for busy librarians who need to refresh their memories when they make additions, deletions, or add new material to their websites. It may also be used as a handout when presenting a workshop on Web design.

If your library has little, if any, technical support, and you have little, if any programming background, this stand-alone workbook will help you create a simple yet professional-looking website. Using a typical Microsoft Windows environment with cut and paste templates and examples, you will learn to understand some of the benefits and limitations of using commercially available software tools. (http://www.redroselibrary.com/)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591583660
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/30/2006
Series:	Crash Course
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Charles P. Rubenstein is Professor of Information Science and Engineering at the Pratt Institute's Graduate School of Information and Library Science. Since 1996, he has developed Web sites for professional societies and educational entities. A distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Engineering Management Society, he has presented tutorials in India, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations     xiii
Preface     xvii
Quick Start in Web Design     1
Setting up a Web Site Shell Directory     2
Creating a Web Site     3
Using Microsoft's Word to Create Easy Web Pages     5
About File Sizes (Bytes)     5
HTML Page Structure     7
Using the HTML, Title, and Body Tags     7
Creating a Red Rose Newsletter Web Page     10
Adding the Preformat Tag     10
Adding the Paragraph Tag     11
Adding Center, Bold, and Underline Tags     13
Adding the Image Tag     14
Creating Structure with Table Tags     14
Recap of HTML Elements Used in Chapter 1     17
What's Next?     17
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)     19
File-Naming Conventions     20
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)     20
Web Browsers     21
Saving a Web Page from the Internet     24
Web Site Design     25
About Browsers and HTML Standards     27
Document Type Definitions (DTD)     27
Top Ten Library Home Page Links     28
Location and Hours of Operation     30
Library Staff and Board of Trustees Contact Information     30
Calendar of Events (Keep It Current!)     30
Your Library Newsletter     30
History of Your Library     31
List of Departments     31
Friends of the Library     31
Trips and Special Programs     31
FAQs     31
Webmaster Contact Information and Copyright     32
Web Page Graphics     32
What's Next?     33
The HTML Document and Header Information     35
HTML Tags, Elements, and Attributes     36
Well-Formed Markup Tags     37
Basic HTML File Structure     38
HTML Elements and Their Attributes     40
HTML Head Section     40
Document Header Information     41
Document Title Element     41
Your Web Site's Base URL     42
Default Fonts for Your Page     43
Defining Color Values     43
Describing Your Page with Metadata     44
Telling Search Engines "Don't Index This Page"     45
Setting a Freshness Date for Your Page     46
Don't Cache-Get Me the Latest Page     46
Redirecting Your Patrons to a New Web Site      46
Adding an ISBN     47
Your Page's Relationships to Other Documents     47
What's Next?     47
Displaying Text in Your HTML Document     49
Using Comments     50
The Body of Your HTML Document     51
Document Heading and Block Formatting Elements     55
Forcing Line Breaks     56
Making Text into Paragraphs     57
Horizontal Rules     57
Centering Text     59
Using the Preformat Element for Easy Text Display     59
Representing Quoted Text as a Block     60
Character Formatting     61
Displaying Text in Boldface     62
Italics     62
Changing Font Typefaces     63
It's All About the Fonts     64
Using Multiple Attributes in a Font Tag     67
Special Characters (Entities)     68
Text Format Tricks Enhance Your Web Page     69
What's Next?     70
Images and Linking to Other Web Pages     71
Graphics and Copyright     71
Clip Art Collections     72
Subscription and Fee-Based, Royalty-Free Clip Art     73
Graphic File Types     76
Lossy and Lossless Image Compression     76
Spicing up Your Web Page with Clip Art     76
Relative and Absolute File Addresses     77
Missing Images and the alt Attribute     78
Sizing Your Images and Multiplying Them     79
Boxing in Your Images     81
Adding White Space Around Your Images     82
Aligning Your Images and Text     83
Hyperlinking: Locally, Globally, and Internally     84
Hypertext and Hypergraphics: Linking to Images and Other Web Pages     84
Relative Links Within a Web Page: The Name Attribute     88
Opening a New Browser Window     88
Adding Your E-mail Address to Your Web Page     89
What's Next?     89
div, span, Style Sheets, and Floating Images     91
The div and span Elements     92
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)     93
Adding Inline Style Attributes to HTML Elements     93
Using Border Attributes with Horizontal Rules     94
Internal or Embedded Cascading Style Sheets     96
Adding Style-One Page at a Time     97
Changing Multiple Defaults with Style on a Single Page     98
Defining Style Within Elements Using Classes     100
Fully Defined Element Class Method     100
Generic Class Method     101
Other Class Acts     102
Using External Style Sheet Files     103
Updating Our Red Rose Library Home Page     104
Styling Paragraph Indents and Margins     107
Background Images     108
Image Borders     110
Text Boxes and Borders     111
Dropped Caps     112
Floating Images for Newsletter Designs     114
Additional CSS Resources     115
What's Next?     116
Lists, Lists, and More Lists     117
Three Basic Lists     117
Unordered Lists     118
The List Item     118
Ordered Lists     119
Nesting Lists     120
Definition Lists     123
Creating Lists with Style     125
What's Next?     128
Tables and Their Creative Uses     129
Building a Table     129
Designing a Calendar     134
Adding Table Captions and Headings     135
Spanning Table Rows and Columns     137
Applying Tables to Red Rose Library Web Pages     139
Using Cascading Style Sheets to Create Tables      143
Style Sheet Table Element Equivalents     144
What's Next?     147
Forms for Patron Interactivity     149
Creating Web Forms     150
The Form Element     150
The Input Element     151
The Select Element     152
The Textarea Element     154
Adding Color to a Textarea Box Form     155
Action Button Types     156
Server-Side Processing: Making Forms Work with CGI     157
How the CGI Can Work for You     157
Online Surveys     159
Forms Processing Using Simple E-mail Techniques     160
Making It Work with JavaScript: Client-Side Processing     163
Using Forms Graphics in Calendar Pages     164
Sudoku Anyone?     166
What's Next?     166
Web Page Navigation, Image Mapping, Marquees, and Transitions     169
Web Page Navigation Techniques     170
Image Maps     173
Image Map Area Attributes     174
Adding Navigation to the Red Rose Library Page     178
Marquees     181
Web Page Transitions Using http-equiv Attributes     182
Using http-equiv="refresh"     182
Section 508      183
We Covered a Lot of Things, but Not Everything     184
Index     185

Editorial Reviews

The author creates a mythical library to serve as the example in this workbook to help librarians with no programming background develop a professional-looking we site. Sequential chapters containing many screen shots take the reader through the process of creating a library-based web site.” —Teacher Librarian

“Librarians just now looking into starting up a Web site or those wishing to refurbish their current page will welcome this clear and concise guide. Rubenstein tackles everything from the basic HTML through where to find video and graphic clips to make the site more visually appealing. He does not speak in constant technology lingo, which would have left this review scratching her head. Rather he uses a term and then immediately defines it in a user-friendly way. He also creates a fictional library Web site at http://redroselibrary.com to demonstrate everything that is mentioned in the book. The reader is then able to refer to the site while reading each chapter….Rubenstein provides an easy-to-use table of contents and index to further help readers navigate this information-packed volume. . . . This manual is not only useful for librarians, but patrons also could apply all this information to building their own non-library Web site.” —VOYA

“Instead of gathering examples from other libraries, he created mythical Red Rose Library. Each chapter takes the reader through the process of developing Red Rose's Web pages, from the basics of HTML to adding images, links and forms. Numerous screen shots provide visual assistance.” —Booklist/Professional Reading

“This workbook is meant for librarians who have no programming background but want to develop professional-looking websites. Rubenstein describes the process of creating a website at a hypothetical library and the design cycle, from content development to publishing, beginning with quick tools to get started and then gradually discussing HTML techniques that can be used without expensive software. Topics include designing text and images, lists, tables, forms, and page navigation. Familiarity with Microsoft Windows is assumed.” —Reference & Research Book News

“The chapters of the workbook have been written sequentially to take the librarian or reader step-by-step through the process of designing a web site.The workbook is a clear and concise guide. . .” —Library Hi Tech

From the Publisher