Assignment 3 Option 1

Assignment 3, Option 1 by Belinda Potter

Montana State University located in Bozeman, Montana is home to over 16,000 students from all over the world.  In looking over their library website for ideas, I found that they use libguides (libguides are like an electronic pathfinder).  I wondered what these were and after reading the material for Module 2, I realized that libguides are a Content Management System.  Libguides is a product that is available through the company called Springshare.

I contacted Montana State University on May 18, 2012 to see if I could find out more about Springshare and why they are using it.  I was able to talk with Rich Wojtowicz, a librarian and libguide content provider, and find out more about their involvement with Springshare. 

Springshare is not open source; it is a subscription with a yearly fee.

I asked Rich the following questions:

How and where did you hear about CMS?

            MSU Bozeman has been using CMS for many years. 

Rich was not part of the original team who set up this system

What were the motivations to adopt CMS for its current use?

            The motivation to adopt a CMS was to make the resources of the library more visible and more accessible to more students.  MSU wanted to “get the word out” about the resources in the library and available through the library.  They decided that library guides would be a good way to reach students.  They could also tailor each guide for individual classes or specific information.  The CMS was also a way that multiple people could contribute.  Not everything had to be done by IT or a librarian.

Do you start the conversation with faculty to make libguides, or do they come to you?

            Librarians will often instigate the conversation and let their liaison faculty know that this service (to make a libguide) is available.  Faculty will sometimes come in and ask for a libguide for a particular class.

What was the decision making criteria?

            The CMS needed to be easy to use and easy to market.  It needed to provide a consistent look that supported the rest of the library website.

What is the name of the CMS being used?

            Springshare is the software that is subscribed to.  Springshare provides the hosting of the content and they provide templates to use.

What are the advantages of this system over the previous one?

            Springshare is the first CMS that the library has used.  Before that they could produce rough webpages that had no interaction abilities.  They were like a picture of a handout and you had to make sure that the url was given out.  Springshare makes finding the libguides easy.

How was the learning curve of this software?

            Springshare is not too difficult.  When problems arose there were ways to get help, like Google, Youtube and others who have used it.

Reflection

I enjoyed chatting with Rich about their libguides.  It was great to hear why they are using this product, since my library is looking into subscribing also.  After talking with him, I felt that my library would benefit from using libguides for the same reasons MSU started using them—getting the word out about resources and making library resources more accessible.  If you would like to see their libguides in action go to http://www.lib.montana.edu/guides/ .