An introduction for University of Manitoba Library staff to Library Guides built using Drupal

1. staff.lib testing
November 24, 2009

2. Volunteers
1. What is broken and needs fixing
2. Enhancements (easy)
3. Enhancements (future)

3. Goals for guides.lib
• A place for liaison librarians to give to
students as a point of contact /
communication
• A place for subject librarians to create
course guides / tips on assignments
• A place for subject librarians to create
subject pathfinders (but NOT lists or
bibliographies per se)

4. Goals
• Simple (meet the “I have 2 hours before
this class, what can I accomplish:)
• Linked with elibrary (databases) for a
subject
• Durable link - to connect from course
management systems
• Easy for students to navigate

5. Drupal
• guides.lib is built using drupal (same as
staff.lib)
• free / customizable / takes setting up from
developer point to view

6. guides.lib (drupal) libguides (springshare)
• Create pieces of content, • Create guides with pieces of
not html pages content in blocks
• The pieces are tied together • Not great integration with
with a subject taxonomy database listings (http://
www.library.gsu.edu/files/
research/121/LibGuides-
database-listserv-
responses.pdf)

7. Content Types
Articles and Databases Library databases Librarian's Blog Add a blog entry for news
(aka E-Library). (only eresources can create) and announcements connected with a
discipline(s). If you want an entry to always
Course Guide Help with a particular course.
appear at the top a list make it sticky.
The title should be the title of the course.
Librarian Contact
Date A date content type that is linked to a
Views calendar (create bookable events). Podcasts Podcasts content type enables you
to download the actual audio of the podcast
Embedded Video Video box enables you to
- note to actually subscribe to a podcast
embed a streaming video inside your page.
feed, you must use the RSS content type.
The video can reside on any video sharing
sites (YouTube and the like...). Poll A poll is a question with a set of possible
responses. A poll, once created, automatically
Getting Started (Intro) A Getting Started
provides a simple running count of the
content is a place to post an introduction to
number of votes received for each response.
doing research in the discipline.You can have
multiple posts with different titles, and a post WebformCreate a new form or
can be associated with multiple subjects. questionnaire accessible to users. Submission
results and statistics are recorded and
Image An image (with thumbnail). Step one if
accessible to privileged users.
you want an image in a Blog/Course Guide.

8. A bit about nodes
• Only one “author” can be associated with a
bit of content (or node)
• But sometimes more than one librarian
needs to be associated with a subject
• Causes some duplication between “librarian
contact” and your user profile

10. Enough talking already
1. Overview
2. Tasks
3. Discussion

11. Next Steps
• Spend a little while over the next two
weeks playing around
• If you want, get a trial account for libguides
(from springshare)
• I’ll send a survey to you
• Recommendation to LMAC for Dec or
January, or discussion at Librarian’s Council