This is part 1 of my longer LibTech 2011 conference presentation, "LibGuides on Steroids": Expanding the User Base of LibGuides to Support Library Instruction and Justify Workload

1. A Short History of Subject Guides Pathfinders to Subject Guides to LibGuides

2. Pathfinder, c. 1970-1995 developed as part of the Model Library Project of Project Intrex, Massachusetts Institute of Technology step-by-step orientation, reference, and instructional tool to information sources intended to support the first 3-5 hours of research uniform in arrangement and content limited to a single 8.5 x 11 inch sheet “The result is an efficient and productive library experience.” (Canfield, 1972)

3. Pathfinders, c. 1970-1995 Pros (for users and librarians): Pathfinders addressed two related problems of reference work: “the orientation problems of library users” “the repetitive instructional demands placed on library staff” (Cipolla, 1980)

4. Pathfinders, c. 1970-1995 Cons: Pathfinders originated two problems inherent in subject guides: workload: the need to create Pathfinders and keep them up to date marketing: the need to broaden their use among patrons (Canfield, 1972)

6. accessibility

7. marketing

8. information literacy

9. workload(Vileno, 2007) topic selection inclusion criteria design guidelines target audience usage user evaluations

10. Online Subject Guides, c. 1994- Librarians have approached the workload issues associated subject guide creation in various ways: static HTML database-driven subject guides course management systems Web 2.0 technologies blogs social bookmarking Web sites wikis (Corrado 2010)

11. And then came LibGuides, 2007- “subject guide in a box”: CMS available from Springshare (www.springshare.com) maintained on Springshare’s web site created by librarians!!! extremely popular (over 2,000 institutional subscriptions) many enthusiastic conference presentations (www.springshare.com/libguides/reviews.html)

12. To summarize… Subject guides have been in use in libraries since the 1970s. They are intended to… provide reference help and instruction to library users and raise the level of reference questions and improve reference staff morale. Web subject guides provide reference assistance, instruction, and 24/7 access to users regardless of location. Major issues of subject guides are… marketing (how to get users to access/use them) and workload associated with their creation and maintenance. LibGuides… provide subject guides with Web 2.0 features that students will access and provide a solution to one of the workload problems of subject guides.