[Web4lib] Do you use LibGuides? - questions about subscription databases if you are a LibGuides library

[Douglas Goans]

The Georgia State University Library has transitioned to LibGuides for research guides. Now we are having to reconsider the maintenance of our database listings. If you are a LibGuide library and have just a couple minutes, please give us some input that will assist us in making some decisions. 

 1. Does your database lists in LibGuides display dynamically from an RSS or XML feed from another source? Or are you manually adding, editing, and maintaining the lists inside of LibGuides itself? Who is responsible for maintaining the master list in your library...a subject librarian, a cataloger, the web person, the e-resources person, a group?

 2. If you maintain your lists manually within LibGuides, do you also create subject specific sets [content boxes? channels?] as well for other guides to automatically include? Or are your subject librarians responsible for manually creating their individual subject specific sets within their own guides?

 3. If database metadata is maintained by one person natively in LibGuides, do they maintain URLs, and database titles, and database descriptions? Do they remove old or dropped databases and add new ones? Also, do they alert everyone about any of the above changes? Do they perform maintenance on the A-Z master list alone or do they also update all the subject specific sets of databases? If applicable, how is this different if the database metadata resides in an external system that feeds the data to LibGuides?

 4. How extensive is your database category list? A dozen or less broad categories? More? How are category labels decided and added? Where in your organization does the responsibility lie for maintaining your database category taxonomy and assigning or removing databases for those categories?

 5. If your database lists reside natively in LibGuides, do you have an alternative access method if LibGuides servers go down? If your proxy server goes down?

 6. If you are using LibGuides to manage your databases is it a guide(s) that is unpublished and only used to populate active guides? Or are you publishing that guide as your public "List of Databases" or "Database Finder" system?

7. Any other thoughts regarding maintaining database listings within LibGuides?


Related URLs:

GaState's Historical List of Databases
http://www.library.gsu.edu/databases/

GaState's LibGuides implementation
http://research.library.gsu.edu/

Thank your for any information you may provide.
-Doug



Doug Goans
Web Development Librarian
Georgia State University Library
100 Decatur St.
Atlanta. GA 30303
Tel: (404) 413 2772 
Fax: (404) 651-4315