August 27, 2008

Hi folks,

Please read carefully!  GREAT NEWS........

I'm SO excited!!  Just this morning our Plone consultant was able to successfully implement an improvement to the OSLIS 2 website that we've been waiting for for months!   Many of you had requested that the middle portlet be larger SO we’ve now eliminated the left portlet that used to repeat the same links as the top TABS.  You will still be able to navigate the site easily via the top TABS or the BREADCRUMBS that appear right below that as you move into the site but NOW more screen space will be given to the actual content.  (Bread Crumbs example: you are on the secondary site and have navigated in to the Evaluating Web Information section.  Under the top tabs, you will see: You are here – Home-Research-Evaluating Web Information ----This means you started at home, clicked on Research, then on Evaluating Web Information.  To get back to any one of those links, you simply click on the word/phrase instead of using the BACK button.

AND this also means that the EBSCO products now have 2/3 of the window so they are no longer so “squashed” and users can see more on a single page thereby limiting the need for scrolling. 

YEAHOOOO.  I’ve really been hoping we could implement this change before the new school year started for students.  We made it for most.   We’ve still got a backlog of other improvements to continue to make but none should be as noticeable as this one.  I will be updating the OSLIS tutorials' screenshots and information in the next week .

DON”T FORGET, by going to http://oslis.org you will see a page that redirects you to the correct website for your intentions.  It is not a good page to set as your bookmark since it takes users one more click to move on to the actual content.

PLEASE use the following for your entry and to bookmark for OSLIS use:

• Elementary Student Research  (http://elementary.oslis.org)
• Secondary Student Research  (http://secondary.oslis.org)
• Elementary Educator  (http://elementary.educator.oslis.org)
• Secondary Educator  (http://secondary.educator.oslis.org)

Remember to send any updated IP range changes to me so you don’t have to log in from school for EBSCO access.  AND also personnel changes to be added to this listserv.  We have lots of emails that are now bouncing back from the listserv which means those folks have likely  moved on to another phase in their lives.

Hope you’ve all had some rest and fun this summer.  My School Library Consultant position is still in the hiring process so I’ll be once again starting the school year as your State Library contact.  There will be several sessions on OSLIS 2.0 at the OASL/WLMA Fall Conference in October.  I encourage you to take a look at the offerings at: http://oemawlma2008.org/program.htm

AND please use the FEEDBACK link at the top of the OSLIS 2.0 pages to report issues related to those pages.

THANKS!!!!!!

Patty Sorensen