Extending Our Reach: Automatic Integration of Course and Subject Guides

Abstract

Librarians at the Utah State University (USU) Merrill-Cazier Library started working with LibGuides in 2007, and USU subject librarians quickly adopted the system. USU is a land-grant institution with a main campus of 14,000 students and several smaller regional campuses and centers throughout the state, many of which rely heavily on online resources. After seven years of working with LibGuides, a product of Springshare, approximately seven hundred research guides had been published. The guides varied in purpose and design, and we did not have a consistent or clear view of how students found or used them. We also did not have a template or a structured design, beyond some general best practices. Over time, we started to consider questions around the visibility of LibGuides, more effective ways to integrate LibGuides into courses, and possibilities of using emerging technologies to reach students where they study and conduct research. While the library had already begun manually integrating guides into Canvas, USU’s learning management system (LMS), as a way to extend our online presence, we sought a more automated integration with course and subject guides.