TEACHING, LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

LIBRARY INSTRUCTION ROUND TABLE (LIRT) 

Review of Web Guide Software for Libraries

Purpose of the Project

To take a look at some of the software options available to create web guides for use in library instruction and other venues. 

To look at the well-known options as well as some lesser known ones

To evaluate the options across a series of features and aspects to assist in comparisons across products.

To provide libraries some real world information about these options in order to help with decision-making processes.

Products Reviewed

AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer  Encyclopedia Britannica Online Workspace  LibData  MediaWiki / PBWiki SubjectsPlus  Libguides  Library a la Carte

AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer

What it is: Free service designed for librarians, teachers and trainers with two components:   Blue Web’n: collection of reviewed websites and

activities chosen by professional educators Filamentality: tool to create Hotlists,

Scrapbooks Treasure Hunts and Subject Samplers Cost: Free   Support: Excellent esp. in AT&T States. Tutorials,

seminars and other training information available. Ease of Use: Easy to use but confusing menu

options. Hosting Requirements: None (all on the web)

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Workspace

What it is: Allows EB Online users to create a workspace on which they can place content from EB including video, links, articles. 

Cost: Free with EB Online subscription Support: Help files are available by topic and index Ease of Use: point and click Hosting Requirements: None Summary: This resource may be best suited to

librarians, teachers and middle through high school students. College undergraduates may also benefit from the organization capability of Workspace and the wealth of information available in Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

LibData

What it is: library oriented application with authoring environments for subject pathfinders, course related pages and general purpose web pages

Cost: Free, open-source using a GNU General Public License Support: Adequate. The LibData development team at the

University of Minnesota can provide some support. Product is very reliable.

Ease of use:  high learning curve for the administrator/implementation side   Training for authors required as page creation is not completely

intuitive.  Scalability/Customizability:

Can create templates to standardize page design and content organization. 

LibData contains several customizable categories and information types to organize resources on a page.

Hosting requirements: need an Apache web server with knowledge of SQL and PHP code. 

MediaWiki/PBWorks (nee PBWiki)

What they are: Open source Wiki products Cost: Free, Open Source but MediaWiki requires a

server Support

No formal support but active developer communities Ease of Use: 

Back end administration is easy for a techie, not so easy for a novice - need to know PHP at the least

Front end use is the same as most wikis - some wiki syntax and uploading documents can be confusing

Reusing content not easy  Customizability:

Can create skins for uniform look/feel (MediaWiki) Extensions are available for many things (i.e. usage

counts) but require tweaking 

Subjects Plus     

What it is: open source tool for dynamically managing library subject guides and pathfinders, as well as the library’s A-Z list of databases, staff list, FAQs, and a suggestion box.

Cost: Free, open source Support: Excellent user-friendly documentation through a

wiki, also includes a Google group for questions & comments

Customizability: Color, font, and categories can be customized Side bar can be customized to include contact info, chat

widget, RSS feeds, etc. Ease of use: 

Requires some expertise to install Creating and editing guides very straightforward once

established Hosting Requirements: requires PHP (> 4), MySQL (>

4.1), and a web server

Libguides

What it is: commercial product for creating research guides, course guides, portals, etc.

Cost: annual license fee ranges from $899 to $2,999 Support: blog, forum, training webinars, twitter stream,

responsive staff, "Springshare Lounge" community Customizability:

Customizable to a certain degree (CSS, color scheme, header images, javascript for extra functionality)

All LibGuides have a distinct look and feel. Ease of use:

easy for even the most non-tech-savvy to use easy to edit and move content around  easy to embed video, RSS, widgets, etc.  easy to share content modules across multiple pages

Hosting Requirements: none, web based

Library a la Carte

  What it is: Created by University of Oregon an open

source custom content management system for creating library guides for course assignments and subject research without requiring knowledge of HTML or other web technologies.

Cost: Free, open source Support: Great tutorial web pages, but limited live

support Customizability:

Fully customizable content sections Limited customizability for layout and format

Ease of use: Requires some tech knowledge to set up and customize Simple-to-use search feature Easy to share content modules across multiple pages Easy to embed video, RSS, widgets, etc. 

Hosting Requirements: MySQL Database and an Apache HTTP Server

 

 Name Cost Ease of usehosting requirements

available support

AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer free *** **** **

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Workspace

Approx. $.65 per user ******* **

LibData free

*** ** **

Libguides $899-$2,999/yr (plus optional extras)

**** ***** *****

Library a la Carte free ****

***

MediaWiki free **** *** ****

SubjectsPlus free **** *** ****

Summary of Review Results

Questions?

Paper is online at: http://connect.ala.org/node/77641