Introduction to Library guides (LibGuides) and good practice in designing guides and incorporating technologies.

1. All about LibGuides
Alex Asman & Diane Bell
Library Services

2. What we’ll cover today…
■An overview of LibGuides software.
■Examples of the use of LibGuides at City and at other
universities.
■The importance of good guide design.
■Integrating media and interactive quizzes.
■The opportunity to feedback, share creative ideas, discuss
good practice and you can ask any questions.
www.city.ac.uk/library

3. Subject Guide/Path finder / Subject Handout
■Generally in print during the 20th century.
■Goal is to gather all of the most useful, relevant, reliable and
authoritative resources for a certain subject.
■Curated by the Librarian.

4. Springshare - Overview
■Started in 2007.
■Used by 5,700 libraries in 80 countries.
■Part of a suite called LibApps.
■Easy to use for librarians – no advanced knowledge of HTML
needed.
■Customisable - RESTful APIs, customizable widgets,
bootstrap templates, and advanced scripting.

5. LibGuides at City
■Subject and support guides.
■Staff Guides.

6. Examples from around the world….
■Sheffield University
■Oxford University
■University of Buffalo
■Artstor
■Valley City State University
■University of Oregon
■Penn State
■The United Nations

7. Activity 1 – Exploring LibGuides
Similarities/ differences/ content and layout
■How do you find the City LibGuides home page
http://libguides.city.ac.uk/home in terms of ease of use and
navigation?
■Please look at some LibGuides from City and other
universities, see http://libguides.city.ac.uk/libguidestraining
and note similarities and differences.
■Go to the Padlet section of
http://libguides.city.ac.uk/libguidestraining and feedback
(use the + symbol at the bottom right of the Padlet screen to
add your feedback).

8. What makes a LibGuide?
■LibGuides is a content management system - a tool to help
you create & manage web pages.
■Structure of a LibGuide:
www.city.ac.uk/library

9. Assets
■Assets are the individual pieces of content that you add to
your guides.
■These could be databases, books, etc.
■When you add content to a guide, it will automatically be
added to a central repository of assets.
■In LibGuides you can reuse almost everything - guides,
pages, boxes, and individual content items.

10. Look and feel
■ To ensure that our guides have a consistent look and feel,
box/tab styles and link colours have been preset.
■We use one standard template.
■All guides should use side-navigation.
■All guides regularly checked against City Library writing style
guide.

11. What constitutes good guide design?
■Top-loading information.
■Clear navigation.
■No clutter.
■White space!
■Chunking of text.
■Meaningful images.

12. Integrating/embedding different technologies
■Widgets such as search boxes (eg. CityLibrary Search) and
calendars, journal widgets.
■A-Z list of database entries.
■Images and screenshots.
■Videos eg. You Tube,
■Quizzes and tutorials eg. OSCOLA video using Powtoons
and h5p.org

13. Criticism of Subject Guides
■Baker (2014) points out the tendency towards the “ ‘kitchen
sink’ approach” of adding far too much to a guide which can
lead to cognitive overloading for students.
■Hicks (2015) suggests that often un-holistic design stifles the
“twisting, infuriating and (occasionally) joyful process of
research.”
■Gessner, Chandler and Wilcox (2015) identify examples of
guides where the intentions of the authors seem to be far
removed from those of the user.

14. Activity 2
■Considering what we have discussed today, use the
flip chart paper and post it notes provided and work in
groups to produce your own version of a Library/Information
Science guide.
■What would you include and why?
■What would you consider to be key
resources or links?

15. Other Springshare products

16. LibCal
■Workshops and training .
■Room and PC bookings.
■Scheduler – for 1:1s.

17. LibAnswers
■Frequently asked questions
(now called Ask Us).
■Library Chat.
■SMS Notification service.

18. LibInsight
■Recording statistics on a range of activity in Library
Services
■Enquiries.
■Library footfall data.
■Library circulation statistics.
■Web usage.

19. LibWizard – An overview
■Springshare’s feedback and assessment functionality.
■Use to create surveys, forms, tutorials and quizzes.
■Embeddable widgets which integrate with LibGuides.
■Unlimited creation and responses.
■Gather statistics and reports.

20. Tutorials

21. Surveys

22. Forms

23. Quizzes

24. References
Baker, R.L. (2014) 'Designing LibGuides as instructional tools for critical thinking
and effective online learning', Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance
Learning, 8 (3-4), pp.107-117. Available at: http://0-
www.tandfonline.com.wam.city.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1080/1533290X.2014.944423 (Ac
cessed: 08 March 2018).
Castro Gessner, G., Chandler, A. and Wilcox, W.S. (2015) 'Are you reaching your
audience?: the intersection between LibGuide authors and LibGuide users',
Reference Services Review, 43 (3), pp.491-508. Available from: http://0-
www.emeraldinsight.com.wam.city.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1108/RSR-02-2015-
0010 (Accessed: 08 March 2018).
Hicks, A. (2015) 'LibGuides: Pedagogy to Oppress?’. Hybrid Pedagogy, 16 April.
Available at: http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/hybridped/libguides-pedagogy-to-
oppress/ (Accessed: 08 March 2018).

25. Any Questions?