This is me furiously blogging as Cindi Trainor talked about her experience with implementing LibGuides at Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, where she is the Coordinator for Research and Instructional Services. I hadn’t watched the Vimeo Presentation yet (all the BIGWIG presentations were recorded in advance–the meeting was just to ask questions, etc.–very cool), but I had lots of questions since MSU is in the process of implementing LibGuides.

Here are my notes from that session:

GENERAL INFORMATION:

• LibGuides is a tool that is being used to create dynamic subject pages for libraries. Using LibGuides it is possible to pull together content from many sources, including RSS from aggregators like Google Reader, Bloglines, or del.icio.us, making the content dynamic. Librarians are able to easily insert links to recently created and/or updated sites.
• LibGuides are built by assembling functional boxes. Some boxes can be created to have dynamic content that users can contribute to, adding comments or starring reviews for database links [WOW!]. It is possible to imbed links to any LibGuides page in other websites (including course management software!), as well as build links to jump to certain portions of the page. Additionally, LibGuides generates tagclouds which can also be embedded on other sites or tagclouds can be imported from del.icio.us.

IMPLEMENTATIONS:

• Scottsdale Community College is using LibGuides as it’s entire library interface.
• Eastern Kentucky University Libraries are also using it for other purposes or topics like “Copyright Basics.”
• Tagcloud (tags done by librarians in LibGuides) – didn’t work well at EKU because librarians were creating their own tags—they are working on creating a taxonomy so that the tag cloud will be an effective search tool.
• Several libraries have put a picture of a librarian on the main page which changes when refreshed—gives a sense of the library community for the user.
• EKU is creating course guides—it was suggested that they be attached to related subject guides, so that a student would have access to general information as well by linking to the guide. It is possible to link directed directly to the subject or course tab.
• According to Cindi, it is easy to generate statistics. Stats can be exported into excel, and it is possible to see stats on how many hits specific links are getting.
• Cindi reported display issues in IE6 on Windows
• Cindi (and others) reported that the developers are responsive to suggestions from librarians.

SUGGESTIONS:

• For implementation it was suggested that libraries create template guides for librarians to use (also to make guides somewhat uniform). It is very easy to take content from one guide and copy or move it to another guide, so standardized guides are useful for staff and can include pre-formatted boxes and canned content (videos, lists, etc.).
• Some libraries have made LibGuides about how to create LibGuides for staff. In some implementations of LibGuides they have done live training sessions, then supplemented with the how-to guides.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS:

• LibGuides is supposedly working on link-checkers, but right now content creators must check their own links.
• It is not currently possible to subscribe to a LibGuide via RSS–it would give too many updates if the guides were modified slightly. It may be something that could happen in the future.

Originally posted July 7, 2008.