This document outlines an agenda for a LibGuides Boot Camp. It includes sessions on the advantages of LibGuides, how to use it as a content management system compared to static webpages, decisions to make before creating guides like themes and layouts, how to make universal changes, and best practices for responsibilities, first guides to create, and demonstrations. The goal is to train librarians on setting up and maintaining guides in LibGuides.

1. LibGuides Boot Camp: An
Introduction
Michael Johnson, MLS
Circulation Librarian, Shawnee State University

2. The schedule for today
 10 am to 11 am Advantages to libguides and big
parts
 11 am to 11:15 am Break
 11:15 am to 12:15 pm
 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm Lunch
 1:15 pm to 2:15 pm
 2:15 pm to 2:30 pm Break
 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm

3. What we will cover in the
next hour
 What is a content management system?
 And why is it better then XHTML with CSS websites?
 Decisions that should be made before the first
guide is created
 Color, format, fonts, etc…
 How to make big changes to the entire site
 How to best use this services

4. In the past we only had
static webpages
 A static website is one that just uses XHTML and CSS
to create a series of linking webpages
 Example of one that I made:
http://www.wrightedgesolutions.com/
 Pros
 Code is easy to update
 Works well for a small website (less then 10 pages)
 Cons
 Can lead to sprawl
 Really hard to update universal parts
 No permission settings

5. What is a content
management
system(CMS)?
 Uses a database to manage content
 Instead of 100 identical boxes existing in 100
places, there is one box being mirrored in 100
places
 Update the 1 box all the reflections are updated
with it instantly
 Users only have access to the parts of the page
they need access to
 Bob can’t delete Tim’s box or page by accident
 Examples of CMSs
 WordPress, Drupal, Joomla

6. Why use LibGuides as a
CMS?
 It’s a shelf ready product
 No need to do coding to set it up or mess around
the back end
 It’s designed with librarians and library patrons in
mind
 Don’t have to worry about data storage
 Spring Share have great support
 Once the site is set up easy to train librarians how
to create and add content

7. Before Starting: Think of the
User
 Users like a universal feel to things
 Church always feels like a church
 McDonalds always feels like a McDonalds
 Think of the User
 Who are your users?
 What do they expect?
 What do they need to learn?
 Less is usually more
 Not always true but in the web world less is more

8. Before Starting: General
Theme
 Layout
 Column sizes
 Banners
 Colors
 Backgrounds (main area, inside content)
 Unused Links, Used Links, Text
 Headers
 Help use Adobe Kuler
 Fonts
 For the headers
 For the Box Titles, for Text

9. Before Starting: Fine Tuning
 How much content?
 To a box
 To a page
 To a guide
 Content organization?
 How many links to a link box?
 Shotgun or scalpel?
 What kind of boxes should go into the template?
 What is the definition of a commonly used box?
 Textual uniformity
 When to ampersand

10. Macro Changes
 What is a macro change
 All the banners to the site
 The background color to the entire site
 The tab color
 The default text font for the entire site
 Limitations
 CSS is reverse recursive
 So if someone has applied their own formatting,
such as a font, then the macro change won’t
affect it

11. Macro Changes
 Lets take a look

12. Best Uses: Responsibilities
 Decide which librarians are in charge of which
guides
 Subject areas, expertise, interest
 Have at least one person review before
publishing
 Choose one person to review guides for links and
boxes that should be moved into the template
 Only give super user status to the people that
need it
 Content management systems are not forgiving

13. Best Uses: The First Guides
 A to Z Research Guides
 Map all the links out of here
 That way if the link changes or if the subscription is
canceled it will be easy to change across the whole
guide
 All Research Guides
 Use the the A to Z list to pull all links
 Allows for several organizations of the same
information
 Guide Template
 Hours and other general information boxes

14. Best Uses: Demonstrations
 Lets take a look:
 http://mwj.libguides.com

15. Assignment
 Create one of the following:
 A to Z Research Guides
 A to Z Databases
 Guide Template Page