Librarian practices in subject-based online research guides

Back in 2011, two librarians at Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries embarked on a project to find out more about the role of web-based library research guides amongst American and Canadian ARL libraries.

99 ARL library websites were selected and then surveyed to learn about the prevalence and general features of subject-based research guides. Effectively, all websites offered research guides in some shape or form, of which LibGuides featured prominently (67 out of 99 libraries used this platform). 75 of the surveyed library websites also included course specific guides.

In addition, a 10-question survey was conducted (driven via different librarian mailing list services including web4lib) to find out more about general attitudes and practices in libraries when it comes to the implementation and management of online research guides. The survey’s response rate among college/university libraries was very strong (155, 82%) within the context of 188 library and 198 individual responses in total. Importantly, the questionnaire's results correlated with the website survey confirming that LibGuides features heavily among college and university libraries.

One interesting question considered the types of content hosted on subject-based online research guides (“What other type of content do you host on your research guides system?”). The table below offers an overview of provided answers (n=198).

Answer	Total
Course pages	127 (68%)
“How to” instruction	123 (65%)
Alphabetical list of all databases	76 (40%)
“About the library” information (for example hours, directions, staff directory, event)	59 (31%)
Digital colletions	34 (18%)
Everything – we use the research guide platform as our website	16 (9%)
None of the above	17 (9%)
Source: Ghaphery & White, 2012

I briefly looked at the prevalence of subject guides in Irish universities and institutes of technology. Evidently, the picture is entirely different here. LibGuides is nowhere near as prominent when compared with ARL libraries. Some libraries utilise links to static documents (PDF), which in turn include embedded hyperlinks to subject resources. Others use bookmarking services and cloud-hosted presentations (e.g. Prezi).

Below is a list of a selection of Irish academic libraries (universities and institutes of technology... I hope I didn't miss anyone here) with links to their relevant subject-portals:

Institution	Operating platform
Dublin City University	Homegrown
University College Cork	Homegrown
University College Dublin	LibGuides
National University of Ireland, Galway	Homegrown
National University of Ireland, Maynooth	Homegrown
University of Limerick	Homegrown
Trinity College	Homegrown
Athlone Institute of Technology	LibGuides
Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown	Homegrown
Institute of Technology, Carlow	Homegrown
Cork Institute of Technology	Homegrown
Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology	Not publicly visible
Dundalk Institute of Technology	LibGuides
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology	Homegrown
Letterkenny Institute of Technology	Homegrown
Limerick Institute of Technology	Homegrown
Institute of Technology, Sligo	Homegrown
Institute of Technology, Tallaght	Homegrown
Institute of Technology, Tralee	Homegrown
Waterford Institute of Technology	Homegrown
Dublin Institute of Technology	Homegrown

Ref:
Ghaphery, J., & White, E. (2012). Library Use of Web-based Research Guides. Information Technology & Libraries, 31(1), 21-31.