Web Resources

Need ideas for what to include on your web resources page? We've got you covered! Check out these great examples from our live partner sites:

Deerfield Public Library

Delray Beach Library

Hooksett Library, GMILCS

Montgomery County Public Libraries

Okaloosa County Public Library

Salina Public Library

Uintah County Library

Note that the web resources page doesn't have to be restricted to online resources. Try adding links to helpful resources that are local to your library such as community organizations, school districts, etc.

1. From Aspen Administration, visit Web Builder → Web Resources.
2. Click Add New.
3. Enter the Name of the new resource.
4. Enter the URL for the resource. This is required.
5. Optional: select Open in new tab to have this resource open in a new tab when clicked.
6. Upload a Logo for the resource, if desired. For a unified look to your resources page, you might consider having logo images of a similar size/orientation.
7. Check Featured? to feature this resource at the top of your main Web Resources page.
8. The next few options are:
   In Library Use Only: This option will add an In Library Use Only note and will check the accessing IP to see if the user is within the library building. The indicator of if they are within the library requires setting up IP addresses. Example: Certain Ancestory.com subscriptions where users must come into the library to access.
   Requires Library Card: This option will add a This resource requires a library card to use it note to the users.
   Requires Being Logged In To Access Unless in Library: This option will require users to log in before accessing the resource link, unless they're already in the library. The indicator of if they are within the library requires setting up IP addresses. If you are using Requires Being Logged In To Access Unless in Library, you likely also want to check Requires Library Card (check them both) so that you get both the messaging and the feature to prompt users to log in.

9. Teaser: Enter a short description for the resource. This will appear next to the resource on the main resource page, so is meant to be a brief introduction. Maximum text is 512 characters.
10. Description: Enter a longer description for the resource here. This will appear after users click on a specific resource to find out more information, and can include any additional instructions needed for accessing the resource.

Note: The words you use in your teaser and description are important to tie in the Web Resource with user keyword searches in the catalog. For example, if your Kanopy description contains the word "movies" or "documentaries", users searching for those words in the catalog should see the Web Resource appear in the Explore More box.

9. Select any Audience or Categories for this resource. Web Resources will appear when users switch the main search index from "in Library Catalog" to "in Library Website." Assigning audiences and categories can help users filter search results to find resources within specific categories or geared toward certain audiences. Click here to learn more about audiences and categories.
10. Select the library this resource should apply to.
11. Save your changes.

You can now copy web resources in Aspen! This allows you to easily create a web resource "template" if needed. For consortia, this also means that you can create a "template" web resource and copy it to your member libraries so they can replace the resource links to their own unique access URLs.

To copy a web resource:

1. Head to the Web Builder module > Web Resources.
2. Edit the web resource you wish to copy.
3. Click the Copy button.

4. After hitting Copy, you'll see "Copying [ID Number]" at the top of the screen:

5. Edit the content and settings as needed.
6. Check the Libraries at the bottom and assign to a different library or libraries as needed.
7. Save your changes. 

Once you've built your Web Resources page, you can preview the page Aspen generates by appending this to the end of your Aspen catalog URL:

/WebBuilder/ResourcesList

For example: catalog.yourlibrary.org/WebBuilder/ResourcesList

Once you have your web resources page finalized, you'll need to add a menu link to the page in order for your users to find it. You can simply add that URL alias above to the URL field when you create the link. Click here to read more about adding new menu links.

Some libraries have created a template for their images to make them all standardized on their Web Resources directory. This looks really great and is achieveable with free design software like Canva.

Here is an example from Hooksett Library:

If you want your logo uploads to be rectangular, we would recommend the sizing of: 500px x 300px

Here is an example of that:

If you want your image uploads to be square, we would recommend the sizing of: 400px x 400px

Here is an example of that:

In general, you will want to use .png files instead of .jpg files for better clarity. 

When you upload images to Web Resources, you might not see your image(s) display right away. 

The uploading of these images is tied to the Website Indexing Log found in Aspen Administration > Website Indexing > Indexing Log. This runs every 5 minutes.

You can see this log by having the Website Indexing Module turned on and the following permissions: 

Administer Website Indexing Settings - Allows the user to administer the indexing of websites for all libraries.

To see the Web Resources Dashboard, go to Aspen Administration > System Reports > Usage Dashboard > scroll down to Web Resources. Each Web Resource will have its own table.