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How to Use this CD-ROM for 100 Ready-To-Use Pathfinders for the Web: A Guidebook and CD-ROM by A. Paula Wilson.

The 100 Ready-To-Use Pathfinders for the Web were compiled by the author, research assistants, and/or thirteen contributing libraries and have been supplemented with further resources and annotations. Pathfinders chosen for the project were exemplary in content and/or format, and appear in screen shots throughout the book or, in some cases, have been adapted, condensed, revised, or augmented to provide the pathfinders that appear in Part II of the book. The intent of this guidebook book and CD is to offer librarians tools to jump-start their pathfinder collections. Librarians may chose to post the pathfinders in their current format, or begin customizing them one by one.

This CD-ROM component of 100 Ready-To-Use Pathfinders for the Web includes all of the pathfinders reproduced in both Microsoft Word and XHTML formats with cascading style sheets for easy upload to library Web sites. These pathfinders are expandable, adaptable, and configurable and require very basic Web authoring skills to update or revise them. The cascading style sheet can be modified to reflect specific color choices or font specifications by using Web-editing software. Please see the step-by-step instructions, below.

The CD-ROM consists of

1) 100 pathfinders
2) Template (Web)
3) Cascading Style Sheet

100 Pathfinders

The pathfinders are available in Web (XHTML) and text-only (Microsoft Word) formats. They may be used by libraries to assist in the creation of their own pathfinders and can be edited and revised in order to meet the local needs of libraries.

The Web pathfinders were constructed using Dreamweaver MX (Macromedia); however, they can be edited in other Web editing software that support XHTML. (For more information about XHTML Web format you can visit the World Wide Web Consortium Web site at www.w3.org).

Each pathfinder was created using Table Tags. (To learn more about Table Tags visit the HTML Master’s Reference at www.htmlreference.com/htmlref44.html.)

Other tags of importance include:

<!DOCTYPE>, <Head>, <title>, Link to Cascading Style Sheet

Each Pathfinder includes the following <!DOCTYPE> and <Head> tags. Note that the <title> tag should be changed depending on the subject of the pathfinder (see example below). A Cascading Style Sheet is reference below in the example. <link href="pathfinder.css"

This tag refers to the cascading style sheet which is included on the CD-ROM. For more about editing the style sheet see the section titled "Cascading Style Sheets" below.

Example:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Winter Olympics: A Research Guide</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<link href="pathfinder.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>

CITE

This tag is used for titles appearing in the pathfinders. It is a phrase element that assigns structural meaning to any part of the document. The <cite> tag requires a closing tag: </cite>. Most browsers interpret the <cite> tag by placing text within it in italics. You may override a browsers interpretation of it within a style sheet.

Example:
<cite>Encyclopedia of Terrorism</cite> by Harvey W. Kushner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003. ISBN: 0761924086.

A HREF

The <a href> tag serves two purposes in the pathfinders. It is the tag used to link to external Web sites as well as the tag that provides internal navigation and linking from the table of contents to each category within the pathfinder.

When linking to external Web sites:
Example of a link that references an external Web site:
<a href="http://www.olympic-usa.org">United States Olympic Committee</a>
When linking from the table of contents to each category heading:
Example of a link that references a named anchor placed in the body of the Web document:
<a href="#books">BOOKS</a>
Example of the named anchor:
<a name="books" id="books"></a>BOOKS

_BLANK

This tag is associated with hypertext links. It forces the referenced Web site to open in a new browser window. As discussed in this book, it is preferable to open links in a new window so that the pathfinder remains on the desktop while a researcher explores other external Web sites.

Example:
<a href="http://www.olympic-usa.org" target="_blank">United States Olympic Committee</a>

Template (pathfinder_template.htm)

This file can be used to create new pathfinders. Here is the quickest way to creating your own:

  1. Open file
  2. Type in the name of the Research Guide
  3. Save your file.
  4. Change the <title> tag to reflect the new title
  5. Insert your categories or bibliographic elements
  6. Rename the categories if they are not applicable, change the named anchor if needed
  7. Make sure the links from the table of contents are updated if you change the named anchors.
  8. Insert your content into each category. To accommodate long lists (see Test Preparation for an example) split the cell into more columns.
  9. Delete any categories that you do not need.
  10. Attach the <cite> tags to any titles.
  11. Insert hypertext links <a href> to external links.
  12. Add the date created and the Web site address at the end of the page.
  13. Spell check.
  14. Preview and check all internal and external links.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) (pathfinders.css)

You will find a style sheet among the files on this CD-ROM. This style sheet must be in the same folder with the pathfinders since each pathfinder references this style sheet as shown in the example above. You may edit this style sheet to include your library’s colors and font styles. Once the file is edited changes automatically appear in each file that references the style sheet. For more information about style sheets visit www.htmlreference.com/htmlref66.html.

Making the Pathfinders Work for Your Library

Many adjustments can be made to these pathfinders in order to adapt them for your library its logo and the library Web site’s main navigation bar. You may find that "splitting" cells or adding columns is necessary to place the content where you want it. Tables allow Web designers to design pages as well as organize content, both graphics and text.

Libraries will find they want to add more content or omitting content that is currently available. As discussed in the book, libraries may want to allow customers to borrow materials not owned locally through interlibrary loan.

Although every effort was made to retain consistency throughout the three versions of the pathfinders readers may find slight variations due to unavailable or revised Web sites during the last phase of this book (creation of the CD-ROM). One example is the addition of the 9-11 Commission Report made available in August, 2004. (See Terrorism pathfinders in electronic format).