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SpringyNews: Out of Beta, Into Primetime

September 2014

Live v2 Sites

These LibGuides v2 sites went live over the summer and they're loving it! Check out their amazing customizations and comments.

New Hanover Public Library

 

Interview with Rachel Langlois

 

St. Clair Community College Logo

 

Interview with Kendra Wisson

Norwich University Logo

 

Interview with Heidi Steiner Burkhardt

Bucknell University Logo

Interview with Kathleen McQuiston

       
 

Think Education Library

 

Interview with Wendy Flannery

South Carolina State Library Logo

 

Interview with Robert Lindsey

GVSU Logo

 

Interview with Matthew Reidsma

Colby College Logo

Interview with Darylyne Provost

New Hanover County Public Library

Tabbed Box Display

Guides @NHCP

Cool LibGuides

ALOHA Outreach

LibSurveys Integration

Rachel Langlois - Virtual Services Librarian @ New Hanover County Public Library

New Hanover County Public Library LibGuides v2

Q. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

Rachel Langlois Profile Picture

We LOVE Libguides 2, basically it let us emulate our WordPress homepage to create a seamless end-user experience which makes it EASY to find what you need.

We LOVE the LibApps dashboard and how it has effectively given us “one ring to bind them all” especially with layout and design. And, the RESPONSIVE design has brought us into the light concerning mobile devices. Now patrons can SEE us on any device. Consequently, our usage statistics have gone through the roof. We have captured as many as 10,000 new users of our site each month. No joke. Most of them on an iOS device which could not see our old site. 

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

We have captured as many as 10,000 new users of our site each month. No joke.

Gosh, there are so many, but the Search and Replace feature saved our bacon, within a week of our migration we had a MAJOR change to the URL of our catalog and every associated embedded link, widget etc. What could have been a nightmare of EPIC proportions (hand jamming over 850 uses of this URL) transformed into 6 seconds of painless conversion as though I waved a hand and said, “These are not the droids you are looking for.” Our patrons never knew :)

We also LOVE the assets feature, control of images, and the A-Z database function effectively replaced my one guide that served in this role. 

New Hanover County Public Library InfographicQ. Any thoughts or comments to share?

Keep doing what y’all are doing, we are still very blown-away that this upgrade was free and y’all have been so responsive and helpful with all our questions. We have a shiny new site that our patrons love and can find what they need. Really, that’s what it is all about. Check out our Piktochart presentation which shows you our LibGuides joy.

St. Clair County Community College

St. Clair's LibGuides as Library Website

Customized A-Z Page

LibGuides E-Reserves Module

Kendra Wisson - Systems & Technical Services Librarian @ St. Clair County CC

St. Clair County Community College LibGuides v2

Kendra Wisson Profile Image

Q. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

I am definitely a v2 convert at this point. I appreciate the new organizational components that have been included and I am really enjoying figuring out more about Bootstrap and its applications. I like that if one of the librarians needs to make a simple page with a couple of content boxes they can, while at the same time the system also allows for unique and fun customizations.

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

The A-Z database list, database asset type and the tabbed box style have saved me a lot of time and are definitely my favorites (for that reason). While we still have some cleanup to do, the organization nerd in me loves the new the image manager with folders & the centralized asset storage. 

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

We use LibGuides as our Library website and for subject guides.

It took a little bit of brain retraining to really get a handle of the coding, workflow, & structure differences in LG v2 and how to adapt it for SC4 library, but once I was able to wrap my brain around the concepts, I used this opportunity to align the library’s look and feel with that of recent institution-wide rebranding. 

LG v2 made it much simpler to accomplish this. We use LG as our library website and for subject guides. Using groups and templates I was able to maintain consistent navigation throughout the system. This also allowed me to use one, more complicated theme and layout for our website group, but keep it a little simpler for the research guide group. 

Norwich University

3-Column Custom Homepage

Customized Side Navigation

Databases Assets w/ Customized Resource Icons

Heidi Steiner Burkhardt - Head of Digital Services @ Norwich University

Norwich University LibGuides v2

Heidi Steiner Burkhardt Profile PictureQ. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

We love v2. It is so much more flexible when creating guides. The addition of side navigation and previous/next buttons is perfect for instructional materials. Being able to combine multiple content types in the same box and move things all about is fantastic.  

As an administrator, the amount of flexibility in terms of customizations is awesome too. It has also been really helpful to follow the development and updates in the Help section and Lounge.

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

Assets. The centralized asset management really elevates LibGuides to another level. I was expecting it to be great for links, but what it is proving super excellent for is widgets.

We have all our various search boxes and video embed codes in as widget assets so they are easy to share, reuse and update as needed. We also love the new Databases A-Z functionality and responsive design is a huge win.

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

Central asset management really elevates LibGuides to another level.

We started the process of switching early in the summer and went live prior to the fall semester. Throughout (and still now), I have been so impressed with the community of Springshare users and Springshare support. The migration and go live processes were super smooth and we definitely like showing off our newly beautified guides!

Bucknell University

Custom Profile Page Template

Amazing Homepage Customizations

Custom Header & Guide Title Layout

Kathleen McQuiston - Director of Research Services & Information Literacy @ Bucknell

Bucknell University LibGuides v2

Kathleen McQuiston Profile Image

Q. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

We are so glad we went live with LibGuides v2 before the start of the school year.   The LibApps interface is easy to use and enables us to easily organize our content into a more integrated and intuitive experience for our students.

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

We love the Database A-Z functionality.  The ability to control our assets, both databases and links, makes building our content boxes that much easier.  Giving our students the ability to browse our databases by subject and type of material is a real plus.

We love how easy it is for our students to identify the librarian for the different subject areas and how easy it is for them to reach out for help.

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

The migration process and going live could not have gone smoother.   The Springshare support team provided excellent documentation and were responsive to all our questions and concerns.

Think Education Library

LibGuides as a Homepage

Gallery Slideshow to Feature ebooks!

LibAnswers Integration

Wendy Flannery - Group Library Services Manager @ Think Education Library

Think Education Library LibGuides v2

Wendy Flannery Profile PictureQ. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

So much easier to navigate around, switch between modules, and the extra features make it better for us, and student feedback has been super!

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

Single sign on to all modules. Bootstrap based, so looks great and user friendly wherever people use it.

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

It's been well worth the wait - the Springshare team have done an awesome job technically, but more importantly, the fantastic customer support during the rollout and helping us all learn has been invaluable.​

South Carolina State Library

Gorgeous Guide-Level Customizations

Social Media Highlights in Custom Footer

Faceted Search Results & Permalink

Robert Lindsey - User Experience Designer @ State Library of South Carolina

South Carolina State Library LibGuides v2

Robert Lindsey Profile Image

Q. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

I love LibGuides and have been very pleased with v2. Because of LibGuides’ flexibility with content types and user access controls and the diverse content needs of our staff at the SC State Library, our content strategy uses LibGuides essentially as a CMS backend for all of the specialized content we produce.  

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

For me as a web designer, I’m extremely excited that you’ve chosen the Bootstrap CSS framework for your site design. This has allowed me to develop a Drupal theme using Bootstrap for our frontend website, which then seamlessly integrates with the customizations I’ve made to LibGuides. This includes a rather robust navigation bar with dropdowns and a fair amount of responsive design. The idea is that our users won’t even know they’re in a different site when they’re viewing our LibGuides.

Our content strategy uses LibGuides essentially as a CMS backend...

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

Our LibGuides are a work in progress, but I’m pretty pleased with what we’ve got so far. I can’t wait to see what’s next for LibApps and LibGuides! We also use LibCal, and I’d love to see that product redesigned with Bootstrap and further integrated into LibGuides.

Grand Valley State University

Customized Header!

Custom Tabbed Navigation Template

Mobile/Responsive Interface

Matthew Reidsma - Web Services Librarian @ GVSU

Grand Valley State University LibGuides v2

Matthew Reidsma Profile Picture

Q. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

LibGuides has always been an easy tool for content creators to use, but LG 2.0 now allows designers, UX folks, and LibGuides administrators to have near complete control over the rest of the system. That allows us to better integrate LibGuides into our library web presence, and not confuse folks who show up at a page that doesn’t look the same as the rest of the pages.

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

I love the templating system. It took me about 30 minutes to redesign our site completely, making it look exactly like the rest of the library website. I’m also really excited about the asset manager, especially for databases. We’re still working out the kinks in our own workflows to take advantage of that feature, but having consistency across all of our guides is going to make my life a lot easier.

Every library vendor should take notes watching Springshare's support team. 

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

Every library vendor (heck, every software vendor!) should take notes watching Springshare’s support team. They respond quickly and fully, and even though you can’t accommodate every request, bugs are fixed quickly and every suggestion gets considered and responded to. I don’t know how you guys have such good service and still charge so little.

Colby College

Spanning Custom Header

Simple & Elegant Guide Customizations

Clean White Space

Darylyne Provost - Assistant Director for Systems, Web, & Emerging Technologies @ Colby College Libraries

Colby College University Libraries LibGuides v2

Darylyne Provost Profile PictureQ. What do you think of LibGuides v2?

LibGuides v2 is great! Although we encountered a few bugs in beta, overall the transition went pretty smoothly. I have found the new interface much more intuitive, and the system more robust. I'm having fun exploring all of the new features and planning for additional development.

Q. What new features in v2 are you most excited about?

The Assets feature is a real benefit. We had already been using LibGuides to host our A-Z list, but having the ability to automatically generate a list of databases by subject is a big plus. Being able to share other assets will prevent a lot of duplication of effort, as well as time spent updating the system when things change. Having access to shared images via the Image Manager streamlines our workflow as well. 

Q. Any thoughts or comments to share?

The system is so powerful out of the box, but flexible at the same time.

I love that the system is so powerful out of the box, but flexible at the same time. I've been able to do a lot of customization, predominately via the the templates. I had many questions and discussions with Springshare Support during both migration and customization. Everyone was very responsive and helpful, as always. I can't say enough about the level of support you provide - it is outstanding!