Getting more from your subject guides by going 2.0

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-2009

Publication Title

Mountain Plains Library Association

First page number:

44

Abstract

•Don’t hide the guide! Make sure there is an obvious link from the homepage.

• Brand guides so they are easy to promote.
• Remember to refer to subject guides in other tools utilized by the library. Mention them on the library’s blog or put a link on the Facebook page.
• Publicize your guides often. Show them in instruction sessions and at the Reference Desk.
• Organize guides for easy navigation.
• Be concise, not comprehensive. These are resources to aid in starting research.
• Individuality is good, but so is consistency. Keep guides similar enough so patrons recognize them as authoritative sources from your library.
• Leave out the jargon. Use terminology everyone can understand.
• Don’t fix ‘em and forget ‘em. Aim to update, modify, and check links at least twice a year.
• Forget PDFs, they are harder to keep updated. 2.0 technologies like wikis, blogs, and subject guide software make updating easy; even a novice can do it.
• Work with faculty to make new guides and incorporate them into classroom activities.
• Help patrons to get to know librarians and their areas of expertise. Provide relevant contact information, even a photo so patrons can recognize you!
• Assess your guides yearly. Are they getting used, who is using them, are they helpful?

Keywords

Academic libraries – Reference services; Electronic information resources; Library subject guides; Online information services; Web 2.0

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Language

English

Comments

Conference held in Wichita, Kansas in April 1-3, 2009.

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited


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