Thinking Outside the LibGuides Box: Collaboration and Widgets to Enhance Your Research Guides
Kimberly Plassche and Carolyn Klotzbach-Russell, State University of New York at Buffalo
In 2020, two University at Buffalo librarians were awarded an American Librarian Association Carnegie-Whitney Grant to fund the creation of a multidisciplinary guide, Great Lakes Essential Resources. Carolyn Klotzbach-Russell, a social sciences librarian managing the government document collection and Kim Plassche, a science librarian managing the map collection, saw this as a unique opportunity to collect and curate a varied list of resources for researchers, students and residents of the North American Great Lakes region. Topics covered in the guide include the environment, history, culture and economy of the Great Lakes. Special pages devoted to cartography and government information appear on the guide, reflecting the librarians’ own areas of expertise. The ALA grant funded a student position to aid in editing and updating the guide. Kim and Carolyn will address the pros and cons of interdisciplinary collaboration and working with a student. We will also discuss the embedded widgets and tools we use in the guide, including a government information timeline (TimelineJS), infographic (Canva), a Google Map and Youtube videos. Issues related to accessibility and crediting sources will be also explored.
Products Covered: LibGuides
Kim Plassche is a Map Librarian and liaison to Geography at the University at Buffalo. Her current research interests are the education and evolution of map and geospatial librarianship, and the effects COVID-19 on tenure-track librarians. Prior to joining UB Libraries, she worked in public and corporate libraries in reference, research and management roles. Kim holds a BS in Environmental Science and an MLS, both awarded by UB. When she isn’t working, Kim is home with her husband (also a librarian), keeping up with an energetic toddler, a hyper puppy and two lazy cats.
Carolyn Klotzbach-Russell is the Social Sciences & Government Information Librarian at UB Libraries, serving as the liaison to The School of Management as well as the Departments of Economics, Political Science and Sociology. Her research interests include library collaboration in entrepreneurship and the role of academic libraries in multi-disciplinary collaboration. Prior to joining UB Libraries, Carolyn served as a prospect research analyst and spent several years in the marketing field working for a Buffalo-based software company. She holds a Master of Library Science from the University at Buffalo, a B.S. degree in Computer Information Systems, and B.A. in History from SUNY Fredonia.
University at Buffalo, SUNY
- Library Type: Academic Library
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