Hi Dave,

There's a list of libraries using SubjectsPlus here:
http://subjectsplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sites_using_SubjectsPlus

Julia

*********************************************

Julia Bauder

Social Studies and Data Services Librarian

Grinnell College Libraries

1111 Sixth Ave.

Grinnell, IA 50112



641-269-4431



On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 9:07 AM, davesgonechina <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> You guys are awesome, this is great stuff, really helpful. My impression of
> libguides has been fairly negative for many of the reasons mentioned, but
> Sean has a good point about content strategy and training, and Wilhemina
> has a good point about the costs of open source not always being
> appreciated.
>
> Has anyone tried the two platforms Andrew Darby mentioned, SubjectsPlus and
> Library a la Carte? That's the sort of thing I've been looking for but
> never found until now.
>
> Dave
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 9:57 PM, Sean Hannan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Again, this not a technical issue. It's a content strategy issue.
> >
> > Believe me, I was where you were. I was using all kinds of javascript and
> > CSS hacks to try to prevent people from getting creative with color. I
> was
> > getting to the point of setting up Capybara tests to run against the
> guides
> > to alert me to abusive uses of bold and italics.
> >
> > The folks creating guides are content people, not web people. Take the
> web
> > out of it. Focus on the content. Pick a couple heuristics to educate them
> > on
> > (we picked 7 +/- 2, above the fold/below the fold, and F-shaped reading
> > patterns). Above all, show them statistics. And not the built-in
> LibGuides
> > stats, either.
> >
> > New vs. returning. Average time on page. Pageviews over the course of a
> > year. Very, very, very quickly our librarians realized what content is
> > important, what content is superfluous, and that the time the spend
> > carefully manicuring and maintaining their guides would (and could) be
> > better spent elsewhere.
> >
> > -Sean
> >
> > On 8/12/13 9:35 AM, "Joshua Welker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > I just have to say I have been thinking the exact same thing about
> > LibGuides
> > > for the two years I've been using it. I feel vindicated knowing others
> > feel
> > > the same way.
> > >
> > > At UCMO, we will be migrating to Drupal in the next several months, and
> > I am
> > > hoping very much that I can convince people to use less LibGuides.
> > >
> > > LibGuides is great in its ease of use, but fails on just about every
> > design
> > > principle I can think of. There have been several studies on "tab
> > blindness"
> > > in LibGuides, and don't get me started on the sub-tab links that are
> > hiding
> > > and require the user to mouse over a tab to even see what is there.
> I've
> > > tried telling people so many times to have just a few tabs and always
> to
> > use
> > > a table of contents for the main page, but they rarely do. And it
> becomes
> > > just about impossible to have a consistent look and feel across your
> > website
> > > when LibGuides allows guide creators to modify every element on the
> page
> > as
> > > they see fit. People will do crazy things like putting page content in
> a
> > > sidebar element, something you'd never ever ever see on any website on
> > the
> > > Internet. I tried to enforce uniform colors and column sizes across all
> > the
> > > guides, but I was told to let it go because my coworkers wanted to be
> > able
> > > to decide those things on a guide-by-guide basis.
> > >
> > > I've worked at two institutions that use LibGuides, and what inevitably
> > > happens is that librarians create one Uber Guide for entire subject
> areas
> > > (biology, religion, etc) and then create sub-pages for all the dozens
> of
> > > specific disciplines within those subject areas. And then, assuming the
> > user
> > > somehow manages to find these pages, they are typically not much more
> > than a
> > > list of links that could have easily been included on the main library
> > > website.
> > >
> > > Okay, sorry for the rant. It has been building up for several years and
> > > never had a chance to voice out.
> > >
> > > Josh Welker
> > > Information Technology Librarian
> > > James C. Kirkpatrick Library
> > > University of Central Missouri
> > > Warrensburg, MO 64093
> > > JCKL 2260
> > > 660.543.8022
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of
> > > Robert Sebek
> > > Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 11:21 AM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it
> > >
> > > On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 9:54 AM, Heather Rayl <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > >
> > >> I have to say that I loathe LibGuides. My library makes extensive use
> > >> of them, too. Need a web solution? The first thing out of someone's
> > >> mouth is "Let's put it in a LibGuide!"
> > >>
> > >> Shudder
> > >>
> > >> This fall, I'll be moving our main site over to Drupal, and I'm hoping
> > >> that eventually I can convince people to re-invent their LibGuides
> > >> there. I can use the "saving money" card, and the "content silos are
> > >> bad" card and
> > >> *maybe* I will be successful.
> > >>
> > >> Anyone fought this particular battle before?
> > >>
> > >> ~heather
> > >>
> > >> I'm fighting that battle right now. We have an excellent CMS into
> > >> which I
> > > have set up all our database URLs, descriptions, etc.Anytime we need to
> > > refer to a database on a page, we use one of those entries. That
> database
> > > just changed platforms? No problem. I change the URL in one place and
> > > everything automatically updates (hooray CMSs!).
> > >
> > > All of our subject guides (http://www.lib.vt.edu/subject-guides/) are
> > in the
> > > CMS using the exact same database entries. I converted from our
> failing,
> > > home-grown system into the CMS and then gave training on how to
> maintain
> > > from there (remove an entry, add an entry, create a parallel course
> > > guide)--using the same skills as maintaining any other web page that
> > > librarian is responsible for. But apparently that's too hard.
> > >
> > > So we have a trial of LibGuides. NO ONE here has created a guide from
> > > scratch yet,  but they all say this is going to be easy. No one will
> > admit
> > > that someone will have to recreate all those database entries
> (literally
> > > hundreds) and then maintain those entries. When presented with this,
> > several
> > > librarians said--oh that won't be necessary, we'll just create
> individual
> > > entries as needed on individual guides. WHAT?!
> > >
> > > If implemented, we'll have hundreds and hundreds of entries, any of
> which
> > > could be out of date and nonfunctional, with no easy way to find and
> fix,
> > > other than waiting for patrons to complain that the link doesn't work.
> > Ugh.
> > > All for several thousand dollar a year (as opposed for free in the
> CMS).
> > >
> > > And yes, those librarians' favorite example libguides have a dozen tabs
> > with
> > > hundreds of links on each tab. Overwhelm the patron with links--who
> > cares!
> > > Just let me recreate the Yahoo Directory I so miss with every possible
> > > resource I can find online. Half those links don't work next semester?
> > > Doesn't matter, as no one will ever maintain that page again (and no
> > patron
> > > will use it, since they will just Google these resources anyway).
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Robert Sebek
> > > Webmaster, Virginia Tech Libraries
> > > (http://www.lib.vt.edu/)
> >
>