Using LibGuides for Instruction & Research Assistance EBSS Virtual Discussion, December 8, 2010

Your Facilitators for today… Jenny Innes, Education Librarian Haas Library, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT Cheryl Goldenstein, Education Librarian University of Wyoming, Laramie Dana Peterman, Research Librarian for Education, Psychology & Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine

What is all the fuss about?  LibGuides is an easy-to-use, Web 2.0 info management and Web publishing system  Priced affordably  Easy to create and share web content  Authorship of content can be distributed  Built in social networking and info sharing tools to enhance our services.

Some numbers from Springshare…  Librarian Accounts: 25,521  Total Guides: 122,421  Total Pages: 790,532  Unique Visitors: 2.10 million  Page Views: 57 million  Countries: 25 Source:  Academic Libraries: 1,423 (out of 3,827 total in US) Source:

How many in education and other behavioral sciences? These approximate numbers reflect # of guides with keyword in title (source: from Springshare’s Laura Harris, 11/23/10):  Education: 3015 (incl. higher education)  Teacher Education: 38  Curriculum Materials: 30  Childrens/YA Literature250 (incl. school/public libraries)  Psychology: 1604  Counseling238  School Counseling11  Mental health122  Social work579  Communications379

Some objectives for today’s discussion: 1. Learn how many of us are using LibGuides 2. Explore benefits of using LibGuides for our work 3. Address possible drawbacks/obstacles 4. Share cool features and innovative uses

We might ponder bigger questions…  Can LibGuides enhance learning and teaching?  Can use promote engagement and/or interactivity?  Do course-focused LibGuides deliver the personalized service students and faculty want?  Do they encourage more collaboration between librarians and teaching faculty?

How Academic Libraries Use LibGuides  General subject guides  Course guides to support library instruction  FAQ’s and self-help guides  Information literacy tutorials  Collaboration with faculty on research and teaching  Library Website (partnership w/Serials Solutions)  Staff collaboration/communication/governance

Great tools for the traditionalist…  Easy to create subject/topic-based lists of library holdings  Easy to link to existing library guides  Can create lists of articles/resources  Can point to existing tools/online collections  Easy to categorize, organize, index content  Easy to print out guides or portions of guides

Plus good stuff for those who work and live online & are “early adopters”…  Integration with Twitter; app. for Facebook  Can embed Live chat/Meebo boxes  Can create tag clouds  Shared authorship tools facilitate collaborative work online  Can embed demos, polls or other objects  Customizable for mobile access

Out of the Box Formatting…  So we can get our work done faster!  No more wrestling with HTML or other coding (unless you really want to)  In most libraries systems librarian will set up and configure LibGuides, with unique look & feel for your library.  Subject librarians can personalize their pages (add profile picture, etc.)  More time for addressing information needs of students and faculty & marketing what we do.

We want to hear from you! Question: How many of you are now utilizing the LibGuides platform for your own content?

Which LibGuides features/tools/utilities do you like best or use the most? Some examples:  Facebook and Twitter integration/feeds  Copy another box  Shared authorship of guides  Book cover upload  Upload/embed video or audio files  Incorporating tutorial content  Html editor

What kinds of boxes do you find most useful, and why?

What tools/features would you like to see added to the LibGuides system? For example:  One step uploading of bibliographic data from your online catalog  Tool to facilitate uploading of content from Word documents.  Other?

Have you seen your interactions with students and faculty increase with LibGuides?

Libguides & “crowdsourced” librarianship  All librarians responsible for their own content & quality control  More responsiveness (no bottlenecks!)  Situating librarians where students and faculty are  “Wisdom of the Crowd”—librarians can learn from each other and those we serve  Utility measured through usage stats & comments  Share your thoughts!

Thanks for joining us!