Digital Library Connections

Catalog Resources
Reach the SERC Catalog while you are editing a page.

Serckit has a number of tools and features that will help you as you integrate references (to both print materials and web sites) into your web pages.

Start with the SERC Catalog

The SERC Catalog is a searchable collection of web sites and print publications that have been referenced from within pages in Serckit, or integrated from other educational digital library collections. Starting with this collection is a quick way to jump start the construction of a reference list for your project. You can choose to start with the entire catalog. In many projects the research on learning subset may provide a quicker way into relevant resources.



Include Resources you Find Using the Resource Tag

Catalog Record
Each catalog record includes a resource tag appropriate for including in your page.

Once you've located a resource you'd like to include in your web page you can find the appropriate tag by looking at the details page. At the bottom of the page there will be a tag that looks like this [resource 27]. This resource tag will have a unique master id number that corresponds to that particular resource. You can copy and paste this tag into your page and it will then display information about the resource. For websites this will be a link to the site along with a small more info link that takes people to the catalog record display. You can control how the reference is displayed using a few variants on the resource tag:

  • [resource 27 'new link text']will over-ride the default link text with text of your own choosing.
  • [resource 27 description]will draw the short description for that resource from the catalog and display it on the page along with the link.
  • [resource 27 recordlink] will cause the link to open the catalog record page rather than the original resource.
  • [resource 27 imagesmall]will include a small thumbnail image of the resource (when available). imagelarge also works and provides a larger image.
  • [resource 27 new]will cause the link to the resource to open in a new window.
You can also combine these option in a single tag as long as they are in this order: [resource 27 'new link text' description recordlink imagesmall new]



Add New References into your Page

Inevitably, you'll want to include references in your page to materials not already in the catalog. How this is handled is depends on the particulars of your project. In most cases you'll simply add the reference into your page by hand and someone will take care of making these into new catalog records and replacing your text with an appropriate resource tag. When adding references be sure to include:

  • Enough bibliographic information so people can find the resource. For websites a url usual suffices. For books and journals pick a consistent citation format.
  • A short, 1-3 sentence description of the resource. This will be included in the catalog record and plays an important role in users of your site being able to take full advantage of the resources you've identified.