Lesson Objectives
- Learn how to create a widget, button, or link for ease of access.
- Learn how to create customized access to ISearch to fit the needs of students, teachers, and parents.
In this lesson, learn how to add an ISearch widget (search box) to your school website, your school library website, or your learning management system. Adding a widget will allow your students to get immediate results without having to stop on a landing page. If you wish to add a button or link for users to click and access your ISearch landing page and book river, please complete the previous lesson, Linking to your ISearch Landing Page.
To create the code for your ISearch widget, use INFOhio's ISearch widget generator:
- Visit the INFOhio website and look for the green button near the top left of the screen that shows how you are logged into the website. If you are not automatically logged into the INFOhio website as your school or district, log in with your school or district username and password.
- Visit the ISearch widget generator at infohio.org/widget. Look for the green text that says "Your School District Library Widgets." If you do not see that text, try logging into the INFOhio website again with your school or district username and password. If you are logged in and you still do not see that text, stop and contact INFOhio at support.infohio.org.
- Customize the widget, based on where you plan to put it, using the widget generator.
- If you have only one ISearch instance for your school, you can leave the boxes as they are, customize your button text (if desired), and copy the widget code.
- If you have multiple ISearch instances and you want to place your ISearch widget on a district website or on a district library webpage, you may want to let your students select their specific library from a drop-down. To create a widget with a drop-down, select "Show Library Dropdown." If a student using your widget does not select a specific library from the drop-down, they will search all libraries and can limit to a specific library from their results.
- If you have multiple ISearch instances and you want to place a widget for a specific library on a specific library webpage, select that library from the "Limit search to which library" drop-down. That will add a specific library URL to the widget code.
- Copy the code that appears in the box and paste it into the HTML of your school library website.
Creating an ISearch Widget for Google Sites
If you use Google sites, you can easily embed widgets using a Google Gadget:
- Log into your Google site. Click the pencil icon at the top so you can edit.
- Click Insert and select HTML Box.
- In the box that appears copy and paste the widget code that you have generated from the INFOhio website. Click Save.
- Align the widget/Google Gadget as desired using the alignment options beneath the HTML Box.
Please note: The ISearch widget is the recommended option for embedding a search box on a library or school webpage. The ISearch widget may not function properly when embedded in some LMSs. If you experience a problem when using the ISearch widget embed code, try obtaining a new widget code from the ISearch widget generator. As an alternative, if your school library uses INFOhio automation, you can find your library landing page at https://www.infohio.org/opac, copy the URL associated with your school library, and link to that URL within your LMS or on your website.
Did you know?
Most academic libraries in Ohio use a discovery layer search tool like ISearch and most place it on their library homepage. See the examples below to help you decide where to place an ISearch button or widget on your school library website.
