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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 On Sunday, August 11, 2013, Sean Hannan wrote: > All of this, plus SpringShare has great support. Like, the best of any > library vendor I've dealt with. I've had them implement features within an > hour of me sending the email suggesting it. > > The big downside of LibGuides is that it's ease of use (and ease if reuse) > leads to content sprawl like you wouldn't believe. The new version has a > publishing workflow that can help mitigate this, but it's better to go into > a LibGuides project with a content strategy firmly in place. > > -Sean > ________________________________________ > From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask] <javascript:;>] on > behalf of Sullivan, Mark V [[log in to unmask] <javascript:;>] > Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2013 9:44 PM > To: [log in to unmask] <javascript:;> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it > > First, SpringShare has great marketing. > > Secondly, it is a very simple CMS that was offered at a time that many > libraries were not getting good web support from IT. LibGuides became the > easiest way to edit web pages for many people. It is certainly true at my > institution, where we have had whole departments and units move their > official website to LibGuides, rather than deal with Adobe Contribute and > loose HTML files. I am now in the midst of trying to fix that problem by > rolling out an enterprise-level web cms, but I am finding many pages that > have quietly moved to LibGuides. > > There IS the one compelling thing about sharing a module between different > institutions on LibGuides. If one of our faculty members generates a list > of special resources for a topic, another faculty member in another > institution can just insert that module into their page. Of course, the > worldwide web solved pretty much the same problems ages ago with the > invention of links, so I'm not sure that is really that compelling anymore. > > Just my two cents.. > > Mark > > ________________________________________ > From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask] <javascript:;>] on > behalf of davesgonechina [[log in to unmask] <javascript:;>] > Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2013 9:23 PM > To: [log in to unmask] <javascript:;> > Subject: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it > > I've not had an opportunity to use LibGuides, but I've seen a few and read > the features list on the SpringShare. All I see is a less flexible > WordPress at a higher price point. What advantages am I not seeing? If > there aren't any, is it the case that once signed up, migration to an open > source platform is just not worth it for most institutions? >