LibGuides

To take a break from my intended review of the CiL 2008 conference, I would like to discuss my summer project at work. I am reworking all of our library web pages using Springshare's LibGuides. At present our website is part of the main university site and is locked into a very restrictive content management system. In fact, not only are there bands of non-usable space on both sides of the screen but a large image is replicated across every page of the site giving very little space "above the fold" for content.

Several people had mentioned LibGuides to me early in the year and while at CiL 2008 I spoke extensively with anyone who had any experience using the software. Everyone I spoke with was generous with their praise of the system and it's ease of use. When I arrived home from the conference I began my push. I e-mailed a proposal to our library director with links to not only information from Springshare but also a number of library blog reviews and numerous example pages. Once she approved I sent the same package to the university's folks in charge of web development and marketing. I emphasized my intentions to retain the university's branding and all of the new features it would make readily available for students and faculty. They were very helpful and as soon as they approved I called Springshare to set up a trial.

By the next morning Springshare had set up a trial site and had even taken brand elements from our university web page and incorporated them into the trial site. So far I have found the program to be very easy to work with.

I developed a template to use for our subject guides (I intend to build a subject page for each major that we offer) and cut and pasted all of our archives information into a single guide. I explored a number of subject pages at other sites and arrived at the following format of Tabs: Home, Getting Started, Books, Articles, Other Sources, Citing Sources, and Course Guides. The program allows you to save this as a template (along with the boxes that I selected for each page) and load the template for each of the subject pages.

Another nice feature is the "Post to Libguides" toolbar button. I installed this at work and on my home computer so that whenever I see a page that I would like to add to one of my guides I can quickly add the link by clicking the button and selecting the Guide, Page, and Box that I would like to add the site in. Very nice.

If anyone is interested in seeing how things are shaping up please feel free to leave a comment and I would be glad to e-mail you a link. Are you using LibGuides? Do you have anything to add? Cheers!