Guide on the Side: A Tool for CUNY Librarians: Home

Guide on the Side is a free and open-source web tutorial framework, created by the team at the University of Arizona. It works by putting a frame around a live webpage, allowing the user to get step-by-step instructions on navigating a website, database, library catalog, or any other online resource. The possibilities are endless!

Guide on the Side was requested by LILAC and installed by CUNY OLS.

Interested in making a guide? Read the rules below, take the quiz, and contact your LILAC representative, who can give you access to the shared login!

Guide on the Side is a wonderful tool, but a little bare-bones in comparison to other tutorial tools we're used to, like Libguides.

The Basics

The address:

Go to http://sideguide.cuny.edu/admin and use the login provided to you by your LILAC rep. Click "Create a Tutorial" to get started!

Frame vs. Popup

There are two major types of tutorial: frame and pop up. The frame tutorial is the default (the one you see on the side of this page). But some websites -- like Google or the The New York Times, for example -- won't play with frames. In those circumstances, you can create a pop-up guide that will live in a separate window. Try it out!

Learn By Doing

We all learned by trial and error about how to use Guide on the Side, and encourage you to play around with it. BUT FIRST: check out the rules, ok?

The Rules

Remember we are all sharing the exact same login! So to keep things neat and tidy, we are establishing some ground rules:

Writing a tutorial for all CUNY users?

Put AL in front of the guide. This is short for all, and will make CUNY-wide guides pop right up to the top of the list. For example, the titles should look like this: 

• AL: How to use OneSearch;
• AL: Using Academic Search Complete
• AL: Finding call numbers through the library catalog
• AL: Activating your New York Times subscription

Writing a tutorial for your specific CUNY campus?

Great! Put your campus OLS code before the name of the guide. This is a rule, folks! If you forget, we'll have to add it on for you and change the URL to reflect the correct title. 

Campus specific sideguides will have names like this: 

• BM: Navigating the BMCC library website
• KB: Finding your textbook through ereserves at Kingsborough.
• LE: Uploading RIS files

You can find a list of all CUNY campus codes here, or below:

Want to copy an existing guide and adapt it for your own use?

Great idea! We are hoping Guide on the Side will become a place for shared tutorials. But remember we're all sharing a login and have editing privileges on all guides. We're a little worried that folks will accidentally edit other librarians' guides! Here's what you have to do:

1. Create your OWN version of the Guide first. That's right, at first it will seem like you are starting from scratch. Name it, enter your author information, and so on. 
2. Up to you, but I'd use a second window or browser for the next step. Open up the guide you want to copy, and select and copy all of the text in that guide (control-A, then control-C). Close out of this guide.
3. Paste this into YOUR guide (In the ORIGINAL WINDOW). You'll notice the page breaks are gone. No problem, you can add them back in manually. And make all the edits you like from here. 

Want to work in teams to create guides?

Fantastic! So do we! LILAC has held a few "Guide on the Side" edit-a-thons and we'd love to have more, now that the service is installed here at CUNY. Please let your LILAC rep know you'd be interested in participating!

Interested in making a guide? Aced the quiz? Contact your LILAC representative, who can give you access to the shared login!