The South Australian Apple Users’ Club (SAAUC) lists the extensive range of titles that they have available for their members to borrow from the group’s Library.

Such a listing is a great idea for other Apple User Groups to consider adding to their own websites.

The SAAUC Library Collection contains a selection of Books; Training Materials on CD-ROM; and a collection of other software titles on CD-ROM.

Each item in the collection has a number of data fields entered into the catalogue, which can include;

• Catalog No and Title
• Series
• Item type (Book, CD, DVD)
• Category
• Subject keywords
• Author
• Publisher, year of publication
• Notes (if any)

The SAAUC Library page also explains the all important, but simple, borrowing procedures.

There are few things that could be added to such a Library page to improve it;

1. It could have thumbnails of all the Book Covers, or CD-ROMs (some of the Training Media on the SAAUC page do have images and it does lift the look of the page)
2. For books and some other publications, the ISBN could be listed, and that could be linked back to the titles entry on the publisher’s website
3. If books or other titles have been donated by a publishing house, or even an individual, this could be flagged, as a way of saying thank you
4. If the group has published a review of the title, the URL, if published to the web, or the Issue/Volume details of the magazine it was published in, would be useful

Other Apple User Groups that maintain a Library Collection, particularly those that have had a substantial portion of their collection donated from generous publishers like O’Reilly, Peachpit and Apress, should consider adding a ‘Library’ page of their own.

Some resources to help Apple User Groups build their own Library Collections can be found at;

• October Meetings, MUG Focus & Library Building
• Changes to Peachpit User Group program for Non-US Groups
• Apress Books: Free User Group Program

AppleUsers Share is a series of short articles that highlight a feature or service found on another website that Apple User Groups may wish to consider incorporating into their own sites. If you have a website feature or service that you think should be shared with Apple User Groups, then drop us a line.