Let the Right Ones In: Supporting Patrons as Content Creators with LibGuides and LibGuides CMS

LibGuides aren’t just for librarians anymore. With flexible access and permission features, LibGuides and LibGuides CMS each offer a flexible platform for hosting and supporting patron-created content. This poster highlights how, with a few simple configurations, librarians at a mid-sized university in the southeast opened up the LibGuides CMS platform to host student-developed projects and portfolios. Employing similar techniques, libraries can host a wide range of patron content, including blogs, group and event sites, and more. Learn how to extend editorial permissions to patrons while protecting your own guides and assets, as well as how to control access to patron-created content. This poster compares access and permission features available in LibGuides and LibGuides CMS. Also, privacy and policy considerations are addressed

Using Student Feedback to Improve Course Specific LibGuides Content

Librarians feel that LibGuides provide the opportunity to create user centered and intuitive research guides for students. However, relatively little feedback has been gathered from LibGuides’ intended audience. A LibGuides evaluation was conducted for upper level History courses during Fall 2008. The evaluation is an initial attempt to determine whether students found their course LibGuide useful, how many times during the semester a student accessed the LibGuide for his/her course, and ways in which course specific LibGuides content can be improved. Results of the evaluation will be shared along with a discussion and examples of how the results have impacted course LibGuides content

Game, Set, Match: Conquer Your Library’s Content Management Needs with LibGuides CMS

With the ability to create uniquely branded groups of guides limited to specific content creators and audiences, LibGuides CMS significantly expands the flexibility of the LibGuides platform to support libraries’ content management needs. During this session, presenters will share a series of use cases with LibGuides CMS, including two limited-access staff intranet sites; two limited-permission student-curated course sites; a uniquely branded special collections event site; a uniquely-branded peer-reviewed literary journal; and two faculty-curated conference presentation sites. This session will be of interest to anyone using LibGuides, LibGuides CMS, or similar content management systems

Let the Right Ones In: Supporting Patrons as Content Creators with LibGuides and LibGuides CMS

With flexible access and permission features, LibGuides and LibGuides CMS offer an adaptable platform for hosting patron-created content. This paper highlights how librarians at Georgia Southern University opened their LibGuides CMS platform to host faculty and student projects and portfolios. Employing similar techniques, libraries can host a wide range of patron-created content while protecting library-managed guides and assets, controlling access to patron-created content, and protecting patron privacy. This paper provides a detailed overview of access and permission features available in LibGuides and LibGuides CMS, presents two case studies, and offers considerations and best practices for hosting patron-created content

Return on Instruction: Methods for Assessing the Impact of Information Literacy Instruction on the Use of Electronic Resources

Moving from simplistic, open web search strategies sufficient for high school level work to independently navigating the complex system of information sources available on college campuses is a developmental milestone for undergraduate students. One of the aims of library instruction is to play a critical role in this transition to college-level research, which necessitates the use of specialized databases and other information sources. Instruction librarians raise awareness of library e-resources and provide in-depth guidance in selecting and effectively using online sources. Santa Clara University librarians were interested in investigating the immediate impact of instruction on the use of the library’s e-resources. Do students regularly use library resources after instruction or do they revert to open web sources when searching independently? To study this question, Santa Clara University librarians examined LibGuides statistics, usage data, and instruction data to determine how frequently students access library databases post-instruction. The investigators examined LibGuides associated with course instruction from a selection of classes and explored the potential impact of instructional techniques, timing of instruction, and assignment integration on sustained use of electronic resources. The investigators also examined use of resources by level of course to explore whether independent use of library resources increased as students progress through their college years. This poster will share methodologies for assessing use of library e-resources after instruction using LibGuides statistics combined with usage and instruction data. The poster will also explore opportunities for implementing this method to assess instruction, access, and use of e-resources on college campuses. Speaker

Lose the Lists! Elevating Your LibGuides to a New Level

This ain\u27t your mama\u27s LibGuide! Ready to think outside the box? Want to empower your students? A sampling of institutions reveals a clear focus for Libguides - lists, lists, and more lists! No one contests the informative value of this design, yet these Libguides often lack instructional components essential to student success. Break the Libguides mold! Discover how to create an instructional platform that addresses various learning styles. Informed by focus group data, develop a toolkit to elevate your LibGuides to a new level. This interactive session will help you lose the lists and empower your students today

A Novel Application: Using Mobile Technology to Connect Physical and Virtual Reference Collections

This chapter describes an innovative implementation of the use of iPad kiosks to blur the lines between physical and virtual library collections. Providence College’s Phillips Memorial Library + Commons began lending iPads to students, faculty, and staff in 2012. In addition to lending the devices, library staff dedicated time to learning about both task-based and subject-based mobile applications that would be of use to our community. A small group of library staff tested, discussed, and vetted a variety of apps that would be deployed on the iPads to be lent out. Efforts were made to promote the use and discovery of various apps on the devices through thoughtful organization of the apps on the devices themselves, programming around applications, and the creation of an online research guide designed to teach more about the apps. Despite these initiatives, assessment data from the iPad lending program collected over the course of five semesters suggests that patrons borrowing the iPads are using them primarily for accessing the Internet (Safari, Chrome, etc.), social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and consuming media (YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, etc.). With this data in mind, library staff began to think of alternative ways to connect our patrons with useful, content-based, mobile applications. Drawing on research around the Internet of Things and the integration of digital technologies with our physical lives, the Digital Publishing Services Coordinator suggested positioning iPad kiosks strategically within the library’s physical book collection as a means to connect patrons browsing a given area of the stacks with the library’s online resources related to that subject area. The library’s Commons Technology Specialist had experience with iPad kiosks and programming the iPads as he had managed the logistics of the iPad lending program since its inception. Working collaboratively, these colleagues devised a way to image the iPads for public use and load them with subject-specific apps as well as links to library databases and open web resources. The team chose to use Scalar as the primary content management tool for kiosk content. This chapter provides details about the selection and deployment of content for the Theology Kiosk, signage and communications created to attract patrons to the kiosk, and initial data about kiosk use. The piece concludes with a review of the kiosk project and an outline of future planning related to the project (staff time, hardware and software requirements, usability testing, scaling the project, etc.)

Meeting users where they are: Delivering dynamic content and services through a campus portal

Campus portals are one of the most visible and frequently used online spaces for students, offering one-stop access to key services for learning and academic self-management. This case study reports how instruction librarians at the University of Vermont collaborated with portal developers in the registrar’s office to develop high-impact, point-of-need content for a dedicated “Library” page. This content was then created in LibGuides and published using the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for LibGuides boxes. Initial usage data and analytics show that traffic to the libraries’ portal page has been substantially and consistently higher than expected. The next phase for the project will be the creation of customized library content that is responsive to the student’s user profile