I'm currently experimenting with and developing a new SubjectsPlus installation. I'm the only full-time librarian at my institution and it has been mostly a breeze to install, alter, and find help from other users through its Google Group. 
www.ctslibrary.org/subsplus/


Now if only I could devote the time to actually completing the subject guides, that would be great!

Evan


Evan Boyd | Assistant Librarian
Chicago Theological Seminary | 1407 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637
773-896-2452 | [log in to unmask] | commons.ctschicago.edu




-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Julia Bauder
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 9:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it

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/)
> >
>