Bringing It All Together WiLSWorld Conference July 19, 2005

Subject Guides  What are they?  Starting points for finding information in specific topic areas  Current group of 28 with one in development  Topics can change or be added at any time

Subject Guides  What’s Included?  Databases  Selected websites  Catalog Links  ebooks  Classes  Events  RSS Feeds  Librarian Notes

Subject Guide Main Page

Business & Investments Subject Guide

Business & Investments Subtopic Page

Subject Guides  Why bring it all together?  One stop shopping for patrons  Difficult to find subject information located throughout the website. “Needle in the haystack”  Work smarter and reduce repetition of work

Planning and Implementation  Initial plan to merge databases with selected website grew in discussion to include all subject information  Success would require additional staff resources to implement and maintain  Proposal submitted to management to include work on the website in the professional librarian’s duties

Planning and Implementation  In 2001 Hennepin County Library began staffing their website  Web Services Department  Web Administrator 1.0  Reference Services Librarian.6  Adult Services Librarian.6  Teen Services/Accessibility Librarian 1.0  Special Projects Librarian.5

Planning and Implementation  Website is a door to our public with an expected 6.5 million visits in 2005  Website is a resource for all staff and patrons  Logical to use the expertise and skills of library staff throughout the system who use the resources daily to provide content

Planning and Implementation  Proposal to administration that work on the website including content for the Subject Guides would be part of a professional librarian’s job at Hennepin County Library  Not an entirely new concept

Planning and Implementation  In 1996 Hennepin County Library began providing selected websites for the public  Work was done on a voluntary basis by library staff with various levels of success and commitment  The New Subject Guide pages needed to have formal commitment and accountability from librarians and supervisors in order to be fully developed

 Formal proposal presented to Senior Management  3 points strengthened the proposal for management  24/7 success due to wide participation  Online tools allow easy maintenance  Training and ongoing support would be provided Planning and Implementation

 Proposal fully supported by Hennepin County Administration  Assignment of work on the website is now part of the job duties of many HCL librarians  Supervisors matched librarians with subjects of individual interest or areas of expertise Planning and Implementation

 Half day workshop planned and developed for librarians  Tools  Selection and maintenance criteria for websites  Exercises developed to illustrate evaluating websites  Discussion of writing for the web and system conventions  Collection Management department involved Planning and Implementation

How does it work?  Currently 42 librarian selectors for Subject Guides  Staff had little ‘coding’ experience  Website redesigned to allow easy maintenance for staff and changed display for public

How does it work?  The Subject Guides are custom database driven pages using Coldfusion  Each portion of page saved in a table and all the tables are inter-related  When a page is selected they are dynamically built from the database via the Coldfusion programming  No longer using static html pages

How does it work?  Forms created by Web Services staff for librarians to input content  Additional tool created to allow librarians to provide the Librarian Note content

How does it work?  Content for sidebar/feature column added if appropriate to the subject  Not necessary to include all pieces to offer this type of display  Content modular and you can select the parts that you can support and update  Kansas City Public Library uses a similar idea for presentation of content

How is it going?  Subject Guides were launched on December 15, 2004 with very positive reviews  A few Librarians took ‘coaxing’ to take ownership of their assigned subject  Coordinator sends monthly to selectors to remind them to update the Librarian notes  Includes tips, interesting websites, and some best practices information

How is it going?

 Librarians no longer just concentrate on the physical location and patrons  This is a slow paradigm shift for the role of the professional librarian  Change is not restricted to Subject Guides with opportunities throughout the website for staff to provide content and apply their expertise

Future  Subject guides are only the beginning for us and are a prototype for other areas of our website  Our TeenLinks area is going through a redesign that will adopt many of the Subject Guide features and tools

Subject Guide Selector Tools

Web Application Software  Provides additional functionality  Draw information from databases, web services, etc.  Examples:  ColdFusion  ASP  PHP  perl

ColdFusion Dataflow

Subject Guide Template

Database example

Website example

Database example

Catalog searches example

eBooks example

News feeds example

Classes example

Events example

Custom add-ins

Keyword Searching  Database content allows: –flexibility in search –flexibility in display –integrated results Additional features (e.g. spell check) Google SpellCheck API

grahicnovels --> graphic novels IDEO --> VIDEO habit of high effective people --> habit of highly effective people

Additional Information  LITTLE BOY BLUE GOES HIGH-TECH: PROVIDING CUSTOMERS WITH TOPIC-DRIVEN CONTENT David King. Computers in Libraries. Westport: Feb Vol. 25, Iss. 2; p. 10 (3 pages) LITTLE BOY BLUE GOES HIGH-TECH: PROVIDING CUSTOMERS WITH TOPIC-DRIVEN CONTENT  Where Does That ELECTRONIC RESOURCE FIT on the Library Web Page? Todd R Digby. Computers in Libraries. Westport: Jan Vol. 24, Iss. 1; p. 6 Where Does That ELECTRONIC RESOURCE FIT on the Library Web Page?  Following the Yellow Brick Road to Simplified Link Management Nicole C Engard. Computers in Libraries. Westport: Apr Vol. 25, Iss. 4; p. 10 (6 pages) Following the Yellow Brick Road to Simplified Link Management

Christine Clifford Reference Services Librarian Glenn Peterson Web Administrator