The Future Depends on What You do Today”: evolving subject support in UCD Library for a sustainable future

An Leabharlann,

An Coláiste Ollscoile,

Baile Átha Cliath 4

The Library,

University College Dublin,

Belfield,

Dublin 4

“The future depends on what you do today”: evolving subject

support in UCD Library for a sustainable future

Diarmuid Stokes

HSLG 2015

Summary

• How UCD Library subject support

on the library website

• How it evolved

• How it changed

• What replaced it

Annotated bibliographies of reference

materials, Web sites, databases, and

journals within a specific discipline

(Reeb & Gibbons, 2004, p. 123)

What are subject Portals

“They are not designed to serve either the experienced scholar or the

reference librarian. They are for beginners who seek instruction in

gathering the fundamental literature of a field new to them in every

respect”. (Stevens et al., 1973, p. 41)

1997

1999

2003

2008

Growth of UCD Subject Portals 1997-2008

1997 1999 2001 2003 2008

2011

New Content Management System

Change to Website support Model

Evaluation of Website Content

The (unexpected) return of Subject portals

Library Restructuring

Information Literacy Model

Subject Specific Guides

Why Subject portals again?

But weren’t the figure low?

Awareness

Visibility

Academic support

Support for Multidisciplinary

subjects

One stop shop

Why Choose Libguides?

Interface

Add, Reuse, Share

Embed

Widgets in Libguides

Libguides in…..

Templates

How did we implement it?

Pilot Programme

Develop templates

Add Content

Promote

Mainstreamed

Our Libguides

Where are we now

42 Subject guides, 9

Research guides

Usage

Feedback

“Useful, pretty

inclusive.”

“it all seemed to be

there”

“covers everything

you need”

Libguide usage Sept 2014-May 2015Map Collections at UCD and on the Web 15746

Your Library Information Skills 12284

EndNote 10136

GIS at UCD and on the Web 7779

Welcome New Students 7373

Theses Information 5812

English, Drama & Film 5190

Bibliometrics 4624

Research Data Management 3887

Library Staff Intranet (login required) 3571

Law 3494

Business 3226

Health & Wellbeing Collection 2402

Veterinary Medicine 2222

Agriculture & Food Science 2034

UCD Library Spotlight 1806

Languages, Literatures & Linguistics 1796

Geography 1723

ORCID 1714

Integrating Library Resources into Blackboard 1702

Medicine and Medical Science 1581

Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems 1536

History & Archives 1483

Physiotherapy 1229

Standards and Patents 1203

Since Then

Intranet

Library spotlight

Health and Wellbeing

Collection

Maybe even…..

Library website

Increasing usage

Conclusion

2003 Introduced Subject portals

2011 abandoned due to low usage stats and work load

concerns

2013 Brought back due to new IL Strategy

2015 Usage Stats still low, But library happy

Now we have Subject portals that are sustainable, flexible

and Libguides can be used for more than subject portals

Thank you

Diarmuid Stokes - Liaison Librarian, UCD

e: [email protected] t: @dstokes01

Bibliography

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/.

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Image attribution

DALTON, M. & PAN, R. 2014. Snakes or Ladders? Evaluating a LibGuides Pilot at UCD Library. The Journal

of Academic Librarianship, 40, 515-520.

REEB, B. & GIBBONS, S. 2004. Students, librarians, and subject guides: Improving a poor rate of return.

portal: Libraries and the Academy, 4, 123-130.

STEVENS, C. H., CANFIELD, M. P. & GARDNER, J. J. 1973. Library pathfinders: A new possibility for

cooperative reference service. College & Research Libraries, 34, 40-46.