Libguides and UX

Tue May 6 10:06:22 EDT 2014

Dear Laura,

Please find my reaction between your lines...

Although we use LibGuides in a perhaps unusual way (not for course/topic based guides but for information literacy subjects and training sessions) I think we have found a way to avoid most of the pitfalls you mention. You can find them here: http://libguides.library.uu.nl (as yet, not all of them have been translated into English)

Best,
Jeroen

-------------------------EN------------------------
Jeroen Bosman, subject librarian Geography&Geoscience
Utrecht University Library<http://www.uu.nl/library>
email: j.bosman at uu.nl<mailto:j.bosman at uu.nl>
telephone: +31.30.2536613
mail: Postbus 80124, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands
visiting address: room 2.50, Heidelberglaan 3. Utrecht
web: Jeroen Bosman<http://www.uu.nl/university/library/en/disciplines/geo/Pages/ContactBosman.aspx>
twitter:@geolibrarianUBU / @jeroenbosman
profiles: : Academia<http://uu.academia.edu/JeroenBosman> / Google Scholar<http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-IfPy3IAAAAJ&hl=en> / ISNI<http://www.isni.org/0000000028810209> /
Mendeley<http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/jeroen-bosman/> / MicrosoftAcademic<http://academic.research.microsoft.com/Author/51538592/jeroen-bosman> / ORCID<http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5796-2727> / ResearcherID<http://www.researcherid.com/ProfileView.action?queryString=KG0UuZjN5WmCiHc%252FMC4oLVEKrQQu%252BpzQ8%252F9yrRrmi8Y%253D&Init=Yes&SrcApp=CR&returnCode=ROUTER.Success&SID=N27lOD6EgipnADLnAbK> /
ResearchGate<http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeroen_Bosman/> / Scopus<http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=7003519484> /  Slideshare<http://www.slideshare.net/hierohiero> /  VIAF<http://viaf.org/viaf/36099266/> /  Worldcat<http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n91-100619>
blogging at: I&M 2.0<http://im2punt0.wordpress.com/> / Ref4UU<http://ref4uu.blogspot.com/>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Trees say printing is a thing of the past

From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Wiegand, Laura K.
Sent: maandag 5 mei 2014 23:38
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Libguides and UX

Hi all,

I am interested in opinions on Libguides from UX, web and system librarians. We are a medium academic library that several years implemented Drupal as our CMS and created custom subject guides (http://library.uncw.edu/guides) that re-used data from other parts of our site, could be integrated with other parts of our site, that I thought were more usable and looked neater (as in clean) than Libguides.  Fast forward 5 years later and we've hired some librarians who come from Libguide schools who really want them. I can't deny that the Drupal guides need a facelift both on the front end, but more importantly on the editing side, and doing so can be bumped to the top of my to-do list because we need to migrate to Drupal 7 anyway.

My question is, should I give in to the dominance of Libguides? My resistance is based on these principles:

·         Students don't notice the tabbed navigation and subpages

Ø    You can make them stand out more prominently, give them colors etc

Ø    In LibGuides2 you can switch to left side navigation if you wish

·         Students find the inconsistency of libguides confusing, i.e., some librarians put best bet databases in one box, some put them in a different place.

Ø  This requires adherence to some basic rules, checking by a moderator/admin

Ø  You can make template guides for everybody to work from, creating a coherent look&feel

Ø  You can prohibit to have more tabs than fit on one line

Ø  In LibGuides2 you can have workflows that involves review by and admin before someone can publish a guide

·         Students want efficiency, and so prefer simple (but not boring) layout

Ø  As said: basic rules for editors to adhere to + templates

·         Students are pushed to yet another different looking library interface

Ø  That is not necessary you can simply have central CSS dictate how a your libguide look like; that way you can give them the same look&feel as you main site if you want that

·         Libguides is just another silo of data (i.e., another eResources A-Z, another list of librarians, not integrated with the main website)

Ø  That needs some thinking and planning. Wherever possible it would indeed be preferable to just present information from existing silos in LibGuides boxes using RSS/Widgets etc.

·         Librarians can create new guides extremely easily, so there tends to be a crazy proliferation of one-off guides.

Ø  Again, with a little bit more central planning of content this should be avoidable.

Ø  You can find commitment from your librarians to create a coherent system as a collaborative effort; we use a number of 'rules' that editors need to follow when creating new boxes:

o   Look if there is something similar already in the system; if so, embed that box in stead of creating your own

o   Create your content in such a way that each box can stand on its own, so is embeddable (in other libguides or ELO/Blackboard or mail or whatever)

Ø  Have two 'owners' for each LibGuide: that creates discussion on the content and will make editor more cautious before adding too much new stuff

·         It's librarians, not students, that really love libguides.

Ø  It would be great if you have something that librarians love to build and that students just find useful.

·         We would be paying for a service that we can support in house via a CMS

Ø  True, but the cost is very moderate

I understand that Libguides are great for libraries that don't have their own CMS, or strong IT support.  I also understand that there are template adjustments that can be made and style guides that can be written.

Am I right, wrong? Are they really that awesome, or do they come with their own set of UX and data problems that would be better served by an in-house CMS?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, Laura

____________________________________________________________________
Laura K. Wiegand
Coordinator of Discovery Services
William M. Randall Library<http://library.uncw.edu/>
University of North Carolina Wilmington
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5616

wiegandl at uncw.edu
Phone: (910) 962-3680

============================

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/

2014-05-05

============================

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/

2014-05-06
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.nd.edu/pipermail/web4lib/attachments/20140506/681b4347/attachment.htm>