Springshare Support Blog

We’ve often been amazed by the astounding growth rate for guides in LibGuides & CampusGuides – clearly, librarians have a lot of wisdom to share! And today’s milestone has surprised us yet again – as of today, there are over 200,000 librarian-created guides in the system, and more than 1.3 million pages of content in those guides. What’s more amazing is, it took almost 3 years to hit the first 100,000 guides, but only 1 year to double that amount – wow!!

A big round of applause and congrats goes out to all librarians creating and maintaining guides to publish and share information. Librarians are the best information/knowledge professionals out there and, in our opinion, many of these guides represent the highest quality information found on the internet. We love seeing this growth – more guides means more content is being shared, more ideas are being exchanged, and better quality information is getting out there.

Keep up the great work – onwards and upwards to the next milestone! Dare we say 1,000,000 Guides? With more libraries joining our community every day, we’ll get there sooner than you think!

As you may already know from the last couple of newsletters (June and September), we’re getting ready to release a new version of the system, with significantly updated dashboard and management screens. The current dashboard hasn’t changed since the system’s inception in 2007, and we’ve added hundreds of new features, so… things were getting a little cramped back there, if you know what we mean.

This update will affect all content creators in LibGuides & CampusGuides – System Administrators, Librarians, and anyone with an account in the system. We put together a guide - http://help.springshare.com/lgcg-sei - to help you with the transition. It has detailed information about the new stuff and a screenshot tour of the new interface. Please read it carefully to get acquainted with the new look and organization.

The actual code update will occur over the weekend of October 29-30. There will be no system downtime during this code update.

As always, we’re excited to hear what you think – if you have any questions, ideas, or kudos, don’t be shy – let us know!

http://help.springshare.com/lgcg-sei 

Hi everyone,

Today is an exciting day! We are announcing a new feature as part of our Lounge Extreme Makeover – Groups!

What are Groups? Groups are micro-communities where you can easily share ideas, get questions answered and discuss strategies with like-minded peers. We’ve created 10 Groups, so far – feel free to join as many Groups as you’d like  where you’ll become part of a community interested in the same themes and topics!

How do I join a group?

Simple! Just click on the Groups tab at the top of the Springsharelounge.com Website and you’ll see a listing of all of the groups. Click on a group that interests you, read the description and click the JOIN button on the right-side. That’s it – easy peasy!

Once I’ve Joined a Group – What Now?

Get the conversation-ball rolling! Post a Group Discussion Forum or send a message to the Group. Leave a comment on the Group’s wall or scroll through a list of all of the Group members and chat with people one-on-one. It’s all easy with Groups!

Last, but not least, these Groups are designed with YOU in mind. What does that mean? Well, it means that if you have an idea for a Group and want to be the Group Leader – let us know!

All the best,

The Springshare Team

Good news -  we are totally revamping the Springshare Lounge! The goal is to make it more of a user community where you all are interacting with each other. Plus, its time that the orange and green banners got an overhaul.

So here is what’s on the horizon.

The first stage of the redesign will take place the week of August 15^th – the lounge will look much prettier! Take a gander at the new look & feel of the site:

Lounge Redesign

Phase two of the Lounge Redesign involves the roll-out of groups. We want to make it easier for librarians to network, exchange ideas, get questions answered, and discuss strategies with like-minded peers. We’ll be creating groups in the Lounge based around common themes or topics – for example the ‘Guides in Instruction Group’ or the ‘K-12 LibGuiders Group’ or even the ‘Mobile Design & Usability Group’. By joining (and creating!) groups that interest you, you’ll become part of a micro community of ‘Guiders interested in the same themes and topics – these micro-communities will be a great way to foster discussions, get ideas, and get inspired!

Got a suggestion for a group? Tell us! We’re also looking for a few great librarians to act as group leaders – if you’re ready to help get some conversations rolling, let us know!

We are super excited about our Lounge redesign and we think you’ll be excited too!

All the best,

The Springshare Team

We’ve added a new tool to the LibAnalytics data arsenal – Numerical Analysis! It’s perfect for answering these types of questions:

• On average, how many people use your study rooms after 3pm on Thursdays?
• In July, how many people were in the building before 10am?
• What are the total and average number of attendees in your instruction sessions?

Last week we introduced you to our awesomesauce Cross Tab reports.
This week we’re all about bringing you the cherry on top: customization…and more customization!

1. Custom Ordering of Fields

You’re psyched you have so many options and can really record any data you want – we hear ya, it’s pretty darn sweet. But you also want to put them on the page in any order you want? Done.

For example, if you want to have a multiple choice field of “Location” and want one of the options to be “Other”, now you can put a free text field just under it and have people record what “Other” actually is.

Just think of the options…the freedom! Now go have fun rearranging your instances…

2. Custom Head Section For Each Instance

What to the what now?! Each instance in LibAnalytics now has a custom Head section where you can insert your own custom CSS or JavaScript. Use this field to customize the look and feel of each instance like hiding some fields or labels or creating a different layout. Awesomesauce? Indeed!

After we gave a sneak peek to our clients via last week’s newsletter, today I am pleased to announce that the Mobile Site Builder and LibAnalytics systems are now available for anybody to check out. These two new tools expand our Springshare web platform in two important directions – mobile web and statistical analysis. Both of these are hot topics for libraries, and since our goal is to bring the latest and greatest web technologies to our clients this is a natural extension of our product lines.

Mobile Site Builder (http://springshare.com/mobile) works with LibGuides or CampusGuides and it enables libraries to effortlessly create and maintain a professional-looking mobile website. We handle the coding, the automatic redirects for mobile devices, hosting, etc. – you just log on, create menus, submenus, add content and voila – your mobile users have information on the go. Mobile Site Builder is offered as a module to LibGuides/CampusGuides so our clients will feel right at home in terms of the ease of use and familiar interface. Oh, and did we mention it costs only $299/year? You won’t find a better deal for a comparable mobile tool, so get in while the going is hot. For more information, check out http://springshare.com/mobile, and let us know if any questions pop up.

LibAnalytics (http://springshare.com/libanalytics) is our new platform for recording, tracking, and analyzing data at your library. LibAnalytics grew out of our Reference Analytics module in LibAnswers. We took Reference Analytics, which was targeted for gathering reference statistics only, and added tons of new features, more fields (up to 30 metadata fields to track) and data types (multi-choice, numeric, & free-text), improved filtering, better charts and reports, greater flexibility, and … LibAnalytics was born.

If you like statistics and data (who doesn’t, right?) LibAnalytics will feel like data-Nirvana. Instruction Statistics, Reference Statistics, Workflow Statistics, … literally any type of statistical information can be recorded, tracked, and analyzed in LibAnalytics. And the pricing starts at $299/year for a single instance. Yes, you read that right - it’s affordable, it’s powerful, it’s great looking, it’s easy to use, it’s… a typical Springshare web-app. Take the first step toward becoming a Data Ninja: http://springshare.com/libanalytics.

Developing these tools wouldn’t have been possible without our awesome client libraries who are always giving us fresh ideas and great feedback, so big thanks to everybody who contributed their comments, feedback, and ideas which resulted in these two really neat, and really useful new tools. Onwards and upwards!

I’ll tell you a secret; Spring is my favorite time of year. It’s not the fresh-faced daffodils and tulips, or the Sparrow’s returning song, nor is it the return of reasonably priced berries in the grocery store. Hands down, the absolute best part of Spring is the super energizing phenomenon of Spring Cleaning. If you’re like me (giddy about cleaning and passionate about lists), read on for ideas on doing a bit of Spring Cleaning in your guides!

• Are you using the same content over and over in your guides? Now’s a great time to come up with a Reusable Content Strategy for your links to resources, content boxes, and even entire pages.
• Create a centralized “Storage“, or “Template” guide, and create “linked” versions of that content throughout your guides
• Any future changes to your storage content will automatically update in all the “linked” versions across your site!
• Thinking about a site redesign? Check out the Best Of Customizations for a bit of inspiration!
• Been holding on to outdated, unpublished content? Spring is a great time for weeding and decluttering!
• Looking for ideas on new goodies to embed in your guides? Check out Using Interactive Tools in your Guides for some fresh ideas!

Have more ideas for bringing the Spring Cleaning mindset to your guides? Share them in the comments!

We love sharing great examples of librarians using LibGuides/CampusGuides to publish high quality, timely information. When we saw Kathy Park’s guide about the tragic events in Japan, we were inspired by its breadth, quality, & currency - so we’d like to share her work with the community. Check out the COM Library’s guide to the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami:

http://libguides.com.edu/japan

From Kathy:

To be honest, one feels helpless in these tragic situations. As librarians there is always something we can do – we can compile and provide access to good quality information – it’s what we do best.
Especially for major tragedies, our patrons want to know more beyond just the latest news. How were people affected? What was it like to be there? How can this happen… and how can I help? This guide (and others like it) is a direct result of interacting with our patrons.

Using embedded media, this guide is able to continually update and evolve to reflect the changing situation in Japan. Highlights from this guide include an interactive Google map (which provides links to video and more information), and excellent RSS feeds. In the future, Kathy plans to add a page about Japan, and another on nuclear power (which is emerging as a significant part of the story), and will continue adding new angles as the situation evolves.

We love sharing these success stories – as Kathy mentions, “Every time I create a new guide, I blog it. I use twitterfeed to send the blog post to our Twitter & Facebook accounts, and I use the text from our blog to email every user on campus”. And the results are tangible – using Kathy’s links, patrons have donated to victims of this and other catastrophic events, and students have access to an incredible source of research help, akin to a time-capsule of an event.

Much like the GOSIC (Gulf Oil Spill Information Center) guide we shared back in July ( http://guides.lib.usf.edu/gulf-oil-spill ), these guides represent the best of what LibGuides has to offer. We’re proud to be able to offer librarians a fast & flexible tool to rapidly share their knowledge with their communities. We also love to share, and Kathy has graciously agreed to allow other LibGuiders to re-use her excellent content in your own sites. For more information, check out our Best Of site: http://bestof.libguides.com/collections

We are very excited to announce a brand-new release of LibAnswers system with tons of new features and improved functionality. The updates went out this past weekend so everything is live already. Here is the rundown of the new stuff:

1. LibAnalytics. We introduced a new product called LibAnalytics, which borrows from the functionality of the current Reference Analytics module. This is for libraries who require the statistics functionality of the Analytics module but do not need the rest of the LibAnswers system (public q/a, the ability for patrons to ask questions, etc). In LibAnalytics, libraries can define multiple analytics instances – each instance can track up to 10 metadata fields with up to 30 values per field. You can track anything you want with LibAnalytics, i.e. it is not just limited to reference. So, track and analyze away!  Please contact us if you would like more information on LibAnalytics.
2. The Reference Analytics module has been expanded to support additional instances as well (just like the LibAnalytics product but this is integrated into LibAnswers).  Now the Reference Analytics clients can define multiple analytics instances (i.e. if you’d like to track statistics at the circulation desk, info literacy sessions statistics, or media desk, etc – you can track anything you’d like). Contact us if you’d like more information on the expanded Reference Analytics module.
3. The “More Ways to Contact Us” box now has icons/options for phone contact and email contact (previously it only had twitter/sms contact icons). With this enhancement your patrons can easily note how to contact you via the phone or email.
4. Private questions can now have replies. Emailed answers include a link for the recipient where they can comment/leave a reply to the answer. These replies/conversations are threaded in the View/edit private answer page.
5. It is now possible to “close” a question without sending an answer.
6. Linked answers! They are here, at last! When answering a public question you can “link” to an existing answer, so any changes to the original entry will automatically be propagated to all “linked” answers (it works just like linked pages/linked boxes in LibGuides).
7. Added privacy/access control options. Now you can put your entire system behind an IP access/address range, or you can password-protect access to the entire system. There is also a new option to disallow search engine indexing.
8. Improved QuerySpy interface. QuerySpy is the unsung hero of LibAnswers – people love it and for a good reason. Now it’s easier to use – you can delete entries from the grid, set date range filters, export data to excel, etc. Check it out – it’s cool!
9. Improved “Comments” for q/a pairs. Comments can now be edited directly from the admin interface. Logged in users’ comments are approved automatically, and you can automatically send an email to the original questioner, with the text of the comment.
10. “Change Topic” dropdown now appears on the homepage, to enable visitors to easily browse the list of topics.
11. “Featured Questions” box on the homepage – now you can customize which questions will appear on the homepage (this works just like the featured guides box in LibGuides).
12. Improved mobile interface – you can now set the default text inside the “Ask us” box in the mobile interface.
13. The “success” message on the question form submission page is now fully customizable.
14. Emailed answers now explicitly note if there is multimedia (videos, or attached files) associated with the answer, and point the email recipient to the anchored page where they can view this multimedia.
15. To see other questions from the same email address you can click on the email address in the “Unanswered” tab or click the link next to the email in the answer/edit page for the individual answer.
16. Link checker! Yes, you read it correctly, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Link checker is now available in LibAnswers, too – it will periodically (twice a month) check the validity of links you included as part of your answers.

Phew, that’s a lot of new stuff, so check it out when you get a chance and, as always, please let us know what you think. Thanks to everybody who contributed their ideas, comments, suggestions, testing, and blood sweat and tears which went into developing this awesome new LibAnswers release.