Creating Web Pages and Online Reading Lists Using EBSCO's Page Composer
http://library.osu.edu/sites/it/ER/PageComposer/PageComposer.htm
ALAO 2004 Annual Conference Poster Session
Marti Alt (alt.1@osu.edu), General Humanities Bibliographer, The Ohio State University
Penny Pearson (pearson.1@osu.edu), Reference Liaison (IT Division), The Ohio State University
Using Page Composer With Classes
Marti Alt uses EBSCO's Page Composer to create Web pages and reading lists for bibliographic instruction. One example is her Buddhism in America Web page of readings for the religious studies program at The Ohio State University. Students have also used Page Composer to submit their bibliographies to their professors.
She feels Page Composer is
- a good way for faculty to use as a course pack.
- a good way for students to send a bibliography to the instructor
- especially good for humanities faculty as many have not used HTML editors.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Page Composer does have some advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- It is simple to use.
- No special knowledge of HTML or Web editors is required.
- Is directly tied to a well-known and frequently used resource (Academic Search Premier and other EBSCO databases).
- Can include text, links to Web pages, full text articles from EBSCO and other providers, bibliographic records from the online catalog, and images.
- Can add special effects such as formatting, background color, search boxes for EBSCO databases.
Disadvantages
- Access is buried within the EBSCO interface and users must know how to find it.
- The process is not intuitive.
- Repositioning items is clunky as they must be moved up one step at a time.
- Citations are not in a standard citation format. When the Web page is done you can use the Browser File/Save As option to open the html text and re-do the citations in a standard citation format.
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lMay want to create two entries (links) or two versions; one each for on-campus and off-campus use.
EBSCO's Use Guidelines
Before starting to use Page Composer review EBSCO's Use Guidelines, which include:
- Faculty are expected to comply with EBSCO's 7 use guidelines.
- Use is restricted to faculty, students and authorized users.
- Limit of 1 article from a single journal issue or 1 chapter from a book per semester.
- Repeated use of the same material requires copyright permission.
EBSCO Instructional Materials
You may also want to review these EBSCO instructional materials:
- Page Composer User Guide
- EBSCO Support Web site
- Page Composer Tutorial
Page Composer Demonstration
The following PowerPoint slides illustrate how each Page Computer option was used in the Buddhism in America Web page. The headers indicate which Page Composer option is illustrated and instructions appear in boxes.