LibGuides 2 FAQs

Below are the questions that were asked during the LibGuides 2 Road Show. This FAQ strives to disseminate those questions and their answers to everyone interested in the LibGuides 2 migration. If there is no answer to a question, we're still working on getting the answer.

Accounts

Q. LibApps V2: Which will be the account of record?

A. From SpringShare: LibGuide authors will receive an email when their accounts are created. They’ll need to log into LibApps v2 and create an account for themselves. This will serve as their master LibApps v2 account.

Q. What happens with accounts? Do we need to reset our passwords? How will authors be notified that they now have an account in LibGuides 2?

A. From SpringShare: They will receive an email, so let folks know to keep an eye on their spam folders in case these end up getting flagged.

Q. Are access controls different in LibGuides 2? Is there anything new to sharing ownership of guides or providing access to authors?

A. No, there are no changes to guide ownership or access.

After migration but before rollout

Q. Can we create a new guide in LibGuides 2 before it goes live?

A. Yes, but they won’t show up until July 31.

Q. Will there be a moratorium on editing or creating guides between June and July?

A. No, but changes you make to LibGuides 1 that you want to keep will have to be duplicated in LibGuides 2 manually.

Databases A-Z

Q. Will the LibGuides A-Z list work with systems other than Serials Solutions? What if we come up with a new way to do Databases A-Z?

A. LibGuides 2 will only work with Serials Solutions for auto-populating the A-Z list.

Q. What happens to Database A-Z descriptions when LibGuides 2 goes live? Do the descriptions in LibGuides 1 also move to LibGuides 2?

A. From SpringShare: When you do the migration from v1 to v2 and have done the definition of Database Assets using the tools in the Migration page (from the v1 dashboard) [note: this has been done], if a particular link has a custom description, that will remain intact.

Q. Can we use Database links to a non-LibGuide-A-Z database?

A. No, Databases can only link to databases in the LibGuides A-Z list.

Documentation

Q. Is there advice forthcoming about using Links vs. using Rich Text boxes?

A. The best practices guide encourages the use of Links instead of Rich Text when creating lists of links.

Q. Will there be documentation on things like embedding YouTube videos into LibGuides? More generally, will there be documentation for people who cannot make the training or are hired after the training?

A. Yes, documentation will be made available.

Q. Currently there’s a template that people use to start their guides. Will there be a template for LibGuides 2? It would be helpful to know which boxes to use and it would be good to have the same boxes being used in guides for consistency.

A. The LibGuide implementation group will determine if a new template will be created.

Q. Can we have a conversation about what should be a LibGuide and what shouldn’t?

A. The LibGuides 2 implementation group is putting a recommendation on when to create a LibGuide. It will circulate through CRSC for vetting. The implementation group has not made a recommendation on when not to use a LibGuide.

Features

Q. Is “Save as Draft” possible?

A. Short answer, no.

Long answer, from SpringShare: Yes, when you create a guide at first, its status is Unpublished, which means it is not viewable by anyone unless you are an accountholder, logged in, and have permission to edit the content. If you are working on a guide that has already been published, there is another option while you edit a specific page, which is to make the page switch to hidden view. This means the guide itself is still available publicly, but until you unhide the page no one can see its contents. Lastly, in LibGuides CMS, there is a feature called Publishing Workflow, which is a nice bonus if you want to have a more controlled process for creation and update of content. If you log into your LibApps account, take a look at this guide for better explanation of this topic: http://support.springshare.com/libguides/publishing.

Q. Will LibGuides support the use of sortable tables?

A. There is no out-of-the-box support for sortable tables. Library Information Technology’s User Experience group may be able to provide something.

Q. Books from the Catalog: Can it pick up covers and data from amazon.co.jp instead of amazon.com?

A.

Q. Will LibGuides 1 or 2 show a list of guides that I am a co-editor on?

A. 

General questions and comments

Q. Is there an exit strategy? Do we have any commitment from SpringShare that they’re going to remain available and that LibGuides 2 will continue to work in the future? [Contrast that to Drupal, which is open source and locally-deployed.]

A. There is an option for bulk XML export of all LibGuide data. There is also the possibility of exporting individual guides to HTML.

Comments

• The Library should be promoting the guides to drive traffic to them.
  • People spend a lot of time on their guides and will now spend a lot of time cleaning them up for migration. The Library should be promoting them by putting them on the home page and in the newsletter.
• We were asked a short time ago to go through our guides and turn our URLs to databases into handles, and now this [the new Databases content type].
• Schedule training as far in advance as possible. Lots of conferences (SLA, ALA) during June.
• Hurrah for the “last updated” returning to all guides!

Look-and-feel

Q. There was a uniform guide look-and-feel recommendation a while back. Is that still in effect?

A. The uniform guide was for subject guides only, not course guides. Yes, it is still in effect.

Q. Will the LibGuide implementation group enforce standards? A uniform look-and-feel is a good thing and having boxes in the same places is good.

A. The LibGuide implementation group is only here to implement LibGuides 2 and provide some suggestions on how to best take advantage of LibGuides 2. It is neither a policy-making nor policy-enforcing group.

Q. Will the Medical Library be able to have their own look-and-feel?

A. Yes. The Medical Library will have its own look-and-feel.

Q. There’s a low-resolution projector in Bass L06 (and possibly L01 as well). Will it trip the “tablet view” of LibGuides?

A.

Reviewing guides

Q. If an author doesn’t want to migrate a guide, can they preserve the guide somehow?

A. There’s an HTML export that can be used per guide. It exports all of the guide content into a single HTML page. There are subsections in the page for each tab, so all tabs get exported as a single HTML file. [This information has been included in the LibGuide review instructions.]

Q. Will the link checker check links in Link object descriptions?

A. From SpringShare: No, the Link Checker currently crawls the URL field for Book, Database, and Link assets only.

Q. I ran the broken link report and fixed my broken links. I checked the report again, and my links are still being listed as broken. What gives?

A. The Broken Link report is refreshed every Saturday night/Sunday morning. If you fixed the links, they should disappear from the list the following Monday.

Usage statistics

Q. Will there be a threshold for usage statistics below which we recommend not migrating the guides?

A. No, we’re only providing the usage statistics as a way for LibGuide authors to make an informed decision regarding the cleanup of their guides.

Q. What is a “bounce rate”?

A. See the LibGuide migration instructions.

Q. Why is Film Studies such a highly used resource for non-Yale folks?

A. Google drives a lot of the traffic.

Q. Can Google Analytics [dashboard] group by author?

A. Sarah is working on a solution for that.

What Migrates and What Doesn’t

Q. The Table of Contents box has “welcome” text in it. Will the welcome text migrate or will the whole TOC box disappear?

A. From SpringShare: The entire box is going to disappear, including the welcome text.

Q. What’s recommended instead of the Table of Contents box?

A. Copy the “welcome” text into a Rich Text box if you want to keep it. Otherwise you can create your own Table of Contents using links to pages.

Q. Table of contents boxes: Will they just disappear if we do nothing?

A. From SpringShare: They will not migrate, as the feature is replaced in v2 by the option of using side-navigtation layout for guides.

Q. Can we save historical statistical data?

A. From SpringShare: The historical data will migrate.

Q. Do tags migrate?

A. Yes.

Q. Will all of the contact information make the migration?

A. Yes. All contact information will make the migration.

Q. Will the guide and tab URLs remain the same?

A. From SpringShare: There will be a URL redirector to redirect old URLs to the new ones. It won’t live indefinitely, but it will be there for launch.

Q. What will happen with MetaLib links if they’re still around?

A. Links will transfer as links. The URLs will not automatically change, so MetaLib links should all be updated.